


Beta

by Smosh_Fanfics (KateBlack)



Series: The Playthrough Duology [1]
Category: Smosh
Genre: AU, F/M, M/M, Virtual Reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-08-17 09:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 28
Words: 56,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16513610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KateBlack/pseuds/Smosh_Fanfics
Summary: David Moss was a self-proclaimed video game expert. He felt like there was nothing anyone could do to beat him. He was overly cocky. That is, until he gets an email, inviting him to be a beta tester for an upcoming game for Smosh Games, a relatively unknown company.He thought it would be fun. He thought he would enjoy himself. He filled out the paperwork, met the company heads, and before he knew it, he was being hooked up to a machine so he could join the game.Once in the game, he meets several other gamers, all exhausted, bruised, and scared. He soon learns the truth.The game was a trap. It was murder trap disguised as a game meant to kill off cocky gamers that drove the rest of the community insane. If you get murdered in the game, you die in real life. The only way out is to defeat all one hundred levels as a team, a single death resetting the rest of the team back to level one.Now, he's on a mission to get out with the rest of the current survivors. To succeed, he'll have to learn a skill he'd never mastered; teamwork. But David is desperate to survive, and he'll do anything to do so; even if it means changing who he is.





	1. Chapter 1

  
The boy wasn't going to make it. David could see that clearly through the cabin's window. Nothing could make him run fast enough to escape.

Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from screaming as loud as he could into his headset.

"Help me! Help me!" he kept screeching, somehow getting louder each time he said it. Almost everyone else was dead; it was just him, David, and GamerGirl1200 left now.

There would be some use in keeping him alive, David supposed. It was a team game. Assembling a car and escaping would be easier to win with three of them. But God was he annoying. David didn't want to waste any good ammo on him. The chances of him actually hitting Jason from this distance were pretty slim. David had the best aim out of any gamer out there, and even he wasn't sure he'd get this one.

So he waited and watched, ignoring the urges to help by the dead players and the two live ones. The boy's character was limping heavily by now, and it took no time for Jason to be at his side and grabbing him by the throat. Next thing you knew, the boy's heart was out of his chest and in the hockey mask wearing antagonist's hand.

"Are you kidding me?" the boy yelled. "Lasercorn! Why didn't you do anything?"

"It's Lasercorn," one of the dead players, a girl with an obnoxiously high voice, huffed. "What did you expect?"

David ignored both of them as he stepped away from the window and started making his way out of the cabin. Jason would be after him now, and he didn't want his only escape to be a second-story window.

"GamerGirl, where are you?" he asked as he shovelled a handful of Cheetos into his mouth. Hopefully, she'd have the car assembled.

"On the boat," came the soft reply of someone who never spoke often.

"On the boat?" David asked incredulously. "Are you kidding me?"

"I've almost assembled it," she replied. "I just need to put in some gas."

"You never take the boat!" David protested. "It's far too easy for Jason to get you! All he needs to do is grab you, and then you're dead!"

"What, the guy who won't even help out his teammates is going to preach to us now?" the recently-deceased boy scoffed. "At least she's doing something!"

David's hand froze mid-reach for Cheetos. "What the Hell did you just say?"

"You heard me."

"Says the guy who got himself killed," David snarled. "It's not my fault you don't know how to play the game."

If GamerGirl1200 had the gas, then he had no choice but to follow her, no matter how stupid she was. That boat had become his only ticket out of here. So, seeing no other options, he started making his way down to the docks, mumbling insults and profanities under his breath with every step he took.

"Shit!" GamerGirl1200 proclaimed suddenly.

"What's wrong?" David asked.

"I see Jason," she moaned. "I'm fucked. I'm so fucked."

"Run!" David urged as he set off at a run towards her. If she died, then Jason would probably puppy guard the boat; at least for a while. There was still ten minutes on the clock. Jason had no need to rush if there was only one player left. And there was no way that David was going to sit back and let that happen.

"I can't!" GamerGirl1200 proclaimed. "He's too close!"

"Stun him!"

"I had to drop my axe to get the gas!"

By the time David reached the dock, it was too late. He arrived just in time to see Jason cut her in half. For far from the first time, he was dissatisfied with the gore. The graphics were good enough for what they were, he supposed. But when he bought a horror game, he wanted to be scared. The graphics in this game were far too unrealistic to be scary.

He aimed at and shot Jason, before sprinting to the boat and climbing in, setting off as soon as he could. If he was fast enough, maybe he could-

All hopes of escape were vanquished as soon as Jason appeared out of the water and pulled him in. A few seconds later, the game was over, and David was met with the scores screen.

"Dammnit!" he screamed, slamming his fist into the table so hard that his Cheetos spilled to the floor. That did not help matters. "What the hell, GamerGirl?"

"How is this my fault?" she shot back, the shy-girl demeanour gone.

"You started the damn boat!" he hollered.

"I tried to play the game!" she replied. "Would you have preferred that I just sit in a room and let Jason kill me?"

"I'd have preferred if you acted intelligently for once in your life!" he screamed. "I know that must seem impossible, but please, try next time."

He turned off his headset before she could reply and threw it onto his bed, turning off the T.V as he did. He'd had enough of that game for today. Gosh, why was he only ever paired up with idiots? Did God want him to suffer?

There was a knock at his door, and Sabrina let herself in. His roommate was wearing her Groot pyjamas, and was holding a pair of socks. As soon as the door was completely open, she looked down at the Cheetos on the floor, up at him, and then wisely chose not to say anything. Instead, she held the socks up higher. "What are these doing in the kitchen?"

David shrugged, and she threw them at his face.

"Pick up your own clothes next time, okay? I'm not a maid," she turned to leave. "And please, shut up. It's almost twelve, and unlike some people, I care about my job."

She slammed the door behind her. While the two of them didn't absolutely hate each other, it was a thin damn line. The only thing keeping David from wanting to wring her neck constantly was the fact that she made a mean casserole.

He put his controller down and grabbed his laptop. For an apartment building, his room was surprisingly spacious. He had plenty of room for his T.V and games, along with the rest of his furniture. He even had a little snack cupboard, which was filled to the brim with bags of chips.

His bed creaked under his weight as he collapsed onto it, resting his head against the wall as he opened his laptop. Sure enough, there was a new video when he searched his name on YouTube. I RAN INTO LASERCORN IN FRIDAY THE 13th! The description was exactly what he'd expected. All the rumours are true! He's just as much of a bastard as everyone says he is!

20 views. Not bad for only being up for ten minutes. Most of these videos never breached five, with how many there were out there.

David was aware of his reputation. He just didn't care. Let them say what they wanted about him. They were just jealous. He was, after all, the best gamer of all time. No amount of shitty youtube videos or Reddit threads or Tumblr posts would be able to take that from him. As for the things he said, well; he never yelled at or insulted someone unless they deserved it. Which was unfortunately very, very common.

Still, it was enough to make him careful about who he told people he was. Sabrina didn't even know. He didn't really have any friends (not that he needed them) but he didn't have any real-life enemies, either, and he wanted it to stay that way. Life was just a distraction from games. He didn't want to have to worry about it any more than he had too.

He had left his email open the last time he opened his laptop, he realized. There was a new email waiting for him, from someone called smoshgamesofficial@gmail.com. Was that supposed to be someone he knew? Deciding he had nothing to lose, he opened it.

 **Smosh Games** <smoshgamesoffical@gmail.com>

_David Moss,_

In case you have not heard of us, we are a gaming company based in San Diego, looking to expand the gaming world in ways never done before. It has come to our attention that you are one of the best gamers out there, and so it is my pleasure to invite you to be a beta tester for our newest game.

I guarantee you that the technology is safe. It has already been tested by professionals. At this point in time, we are looking to get a gamer's perspective on it, to see if it has all the aspects it needs to be an enjoyable and wanted game. We will pay for all your transportation, food, and living quarters while you work for us, and will pay you $100,000 after two weeks of testing.

Please consider our offer and get back to us as soon as possible. We'd love to have you working with us.

_Courtney Miller, CEO and founder of Smosh Games_

It seemed too good to be true. David sat there for a few seconds, blinking at the words in front of him. There was no way this was real. It had to be a prank, from one of his haters. This email was tied to a lot of his accounts. He didn't know anything about hacking, but he was sure that that information wouldn't be that hard to obtain.

He quickly pulled up google and typed Smosh Games into the search bar. The first result was a website link, which took him to a sleek, simple webpage. It was mostly white, with black text and blue bars on the sides. In the middle was a picture of around a thousand people, who he assumed were employees.

The bar on the top of the screen had three options: About Us, Shop, and Streaming. The Shop page only had a few headsets and controllers, and the Streaming page said that he should "stay tuned for updates!" Neither of those were very useful.

About Us, on the other hand, was. A quick skim through gave him all the information he needed. These people were the real deal, with certifications and everything. Smosh Game seemed to be a serious company, filled with talented people who had reliable credentials. One of the head game designers helped make the game that first got him into gaming. And they wanted him to beta test one of their games!

Excitement bubbled up inside him. It felt like this was some sort of payoff for all those hours he'd spent in front of a screen, building and honing his skills. There was some planning to do, of course, with his work schedule and transportation and all that, but he didn't care at that moment. The payoff was too good to bother himself with worries like those. in comparison, they seemed minuscule.

As quickly as he could, he typed out a reply. It took him a full thirty minutes to write it, as he reread and edited every little word to make sure that he didn't make himself sound like a total idiot. He wanted to let Courtney Miller know that he meant business. By the time he finally hit send, he was exhausted. But it was worth it.

If this went really well, he might even get to quit his job and become a game tester for a living. Oh, what a dream come true that would be. Getting to devote his entire life to games? There was nothing he'd want more.

This opened up so many opportunities for him, the worst of which would be him walking away with a hundred thousand dollars. There was no downside to this. Life could only go up from here.

 _San Diego,_ David thought happily as he closed his laptop and started getting ready for bed. Stepping on the Cheetos on the floor on his way to the bathroom wasn't enough to dampen his mood. He doubted anything would have that power. _Here I come._


	2. Chapter 2

After a long, heated conversation with his boss, David finally worked out a schedule. He'd have to miss out on his mom's Christmas dinner to get the vacation days, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He'd choose to never see her again if that was what it took.

Everything was packed. David didn't have too much stuff to begin with, so all he was bringing was a week's worth of clothes and his laptop, along with his toiletries. Still, it took him an hour to pack, making sure he was bringing his best clothes possible. He wanted to make a good impression, after all.

His flight was leaving in four hours, paid for by the company, just like they'd promised. After a lot of back-and-forth with their head of marketing, he'd gotten everything arranged. With how well they handled it, he was sure that he hadn't been the first beta tester they contacted. It didn't matter much to him. He knew he'd be the best out of all of them.

Sabrina was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of corn pops and watching the newest Netflix original in her pyjamas, when he pulled his suitcase to the front door. He swore, that woman would wear those damn pyjamas to work if she could. At times he wondered if they'd ever been washed, for he couldn't remember a night where she hadn't been in them.

"Where are you going?" she asked as she paused the T.V. on a hilarious freeze-frame, the main actress looking like she was about to sneeze. If he gave a single shit about what she was watching, he might've taken a photo of it.

"Away," he replied. He'd never told Sabrina about the job, and he wasn't planning on it. No matter how funny and generally likable Sabrina was, she still wasn't his friend. And knowing her, she'd probably nag him to take her with him. She almost loved gaming as much as he did.

"That's not an answer," she took another spoonful of corn pops, narrowly avoiding spilling milk on herself in the process. "Give me an answer, or I'll follow you outside."

"Why would I care?" he snapped, pulling his suitcase to the door. Deep down, he knew that this interaction was unavoidable. He was probably contractually obligated to tell her whenever he went somewhere or some shit. That fact, however, didn't make the interaction enjoyable in any way, shape, or form.

"Because I'm in my pyjamas," she smirked. "Don't doubt my ability to embarrass you, David."

He wasn't planning on it. The last time he hadn't heeded her warning, at a party in college when he was a little tipsier than he should've been... those memories kept him up at night.

"I'm visiting my mom," David lied. Sabrina had never talked to his mom, so he knew it was a lie he could pull off. "She keeps nagging me to see her. I'm only doing it to shut her up."

Sabrina grinned and mockingly wagged her spoon at him in a way that only she could pull off. "Why would anyone ever want to spend time with you?"

David flipped her off as he flung open the door, not closing in behind him just to piss her off. His taxi was waiting for him outside, and all it took was a flash of his driver's license as a form of I.D before they were off.

He didn't know much about the game he was testing. All he'd been told was that it was something that had never been done, or even attempted, before. All that accomplished was making him even more excited.

It only took twenty minutes to get to the airport. He was insanely early, but David didn't even want to take the chance of being late. The head of marketing had made it very clear that if he missed this flight, he'd have to pay for the next one, and he was broke enough as it is.

Security was a bitch, like usual. The buckle on his belt set off the metal alarm, so he had to spend a solid five minutes going through the full-body scan to make sure he didn't have a gun hidden on him. Even without that, the lineups were huge. It took him close to an hour to get to his terminal.

Once there, he bought a few bags of chips and a pack of gum from a nearby shop and took one of the few remaining seats near a power outlet. The flight from New York to San Diego was far from short, and he knew better than to depend on airplane food. That was not a mistake he ever intended to make again.

Thankfully, there was wifi, so he could play Overwatch on his laptop as he waited. It was hard to stop himself from yelling every time one of his teammates did something stupid, but he managed to keep his lips shut. As always, he was the best player in every game he played.

Finally, after two long hours, boarding for his plane began. He shoved his way to the front of the line, gave his passport to the security lady who had ridiculously bright blonde hair, and got on the plane. For the first time in his life, he was riding first class.

The seats were unnaturally plush, and he could push them backwards to the point that the backrest was horizontal to the floor. He had a T.V., and even had his own little table, which he chucked his chips onto, much to the disgust of the woman sitting next to him.

With a sigh, he leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. He'd barely gotten any sleep last night, as excited as he had been. When he met Ms. Miller, he didn't want to have heavy bags under his eyes. Six hours of sleep was just what he needed right about now.

He closed his eyes and sighed, wiggling a bit until he got comfortable. The flight attendant didn't even have enough time to give her safety speech before he dozed off.

»•«

The plane hadn't stopped moving when he awoke. By the time he finished stretching, they had come to a grinding halt. At some point, one of the chip bags had fallen onto the floor. He quickly grabbed it and put it back on the table, before grabbing his suitcase from the overhead compartment and throwing it in with the others.

It was hot in San Diego, hotter than he'd expected. The sun was blinding, and palm trees grew on the sides of the runway. David had never been this West before; the farthest he'd ever gotten was North Dakota. This trip was going to be a world of firsts for him, it seemed.

Getting out of the airport was a Hell of a lot easier than getting in. Before he knew it, he was waiting on the curb for his ride, checking his phone to make sure he remembered the right license plate number. Getting in the wrong taxi and hopping into a car with a kidnapper and possible murderer was the last thing he wanted.

His taxi arrived in minutes, and then he was off. As they drove, he looked out the window. San Diego seemed to be a cool city; not as bustling as New York, but not tiny either. He hoped he'd get a chance to explore it while he was here.

After thirty minutes, the driver pulled out of the city and onto the highway. It took another ten minutes for David to wonder if he had gotten in the wrong car after all when they veered onto a smaller road and a large building came into view.

It was mostly windows, but what concrete there was was painted white. Inside, he could see employees working away in uncrowded rooms with wooden walls and potted plants in the corner. All of it had a modern vibe, and nothing looked cheap. It seemed like the perfect workspace.

The taxi rolled to a stop outside the front door. A woman with long, sleek black hair was waiting for him on the steps, her lips painted red and her eyes obscured by bright, white sunglasses. She was wearing a simple pink blouse and black jeans, along with short pink high heels. There was a wedding ring on her left hand, which had a diamond on it so big that it could probably pay his rent for a year. As David got his luggage from the trunk, she paid the taxi driver.

Once the driver was gone, she turned to him with a big smile and held out her perfectly-manicured hand. Everything about this woman was perfect, it seemed. Perhaps that was why she was the one greeting him. "I'm Olivia Sui, head of marketing. We've been waiting for you."

"Nice to meet you. I'm David Moss," David replied as he shook her hand, before instantly scolding himself for his stupidity. She knew who he was. There was no way she couldn't have. He had no need to introduce himself

"Welcome to Smosh Games headquarters!" she announced cheerfully. If she had thought he was an idiot, she showed no signs of it. Then again, she was the head of marketing, the one who represented the business in a lot of business deals. She'd probably gotten quite good at hiding her emotions after all this time. "We're so glad you accepted our invitation. Courtney has had her eye on you for the longest time. She couldn't be happier to meet you. If you'd follow me, I'll take you to her and our head of game design. They're  _burning_  to talk to you. You're all she's talked about for a week!"

David smiled at her words. It was nice to know that someone appreciated his overwhelming talent, especially if that someone was the CEO of a massive gaming company. He liked Courtney already.

Olivia started making her way up the stairs, and David moved to follow her. Before he could take his first step, however, something caught his eye.

Two people were exiting from the side of the building, every inch of their skin covered in black fabric. Between them was what looked like a stretcher, which had a black bag thrown carelessly on top of it. As David watched, a pale, dark-skinned hand fell out of the bag.

His mouth dropped open as he watched the two people hurry off to God knows where. What the Hell was that? Was there a person in there? A real dead person? David felt the urge to go after them. If that was a corpse, then surely, he should do something about it.

"Mr. Moss!" Olivia was at the top of the stairs by now, her hands on her hips. "I don't suggest that we keep Courtney waiting. My wife is very impatient."

"My apologies," David smiled as he walked back up towards her, the thought of what he'd just seen gone. Whatever it was, he was sure it was easily explainable. And this job was all that matter to him at the moment. He wasn't about to give it up for something that might not even be a problem. "Something caught my eye, is all."

Olivia smiled and unlocked the door, before pushing it open for him, leaning against it to keep it open as he climbed up the stairs. "I hope it wasn't too distracting, Mr. Moss. We have some things to go through before you can enter the game, and it would be best if you had your mind clear."

"It was nothing," David lied. "Just a bird."

"Well, then," Olivia gestured him inside. "Let's go meet Courtney."

She stepped inside. David followed, pulling his suitcase behind him, the thought of the bag on the stretcher gone from his mind, replaced with the burning excitement that had been coursing through him for the past week. He was finally here, and it was almost time to start.


	3. Chapter 3

The inside of the building somehow looked even better than the outside. Painting and prints covered the dark oak walls, and the floor was made of what looked like marble. A large silver chandelier hung from the ceiling, setting the entire room alight.

Olivia's heels clicked on the floor as she walked, and David followed her. Employees had come out of their offices to look at him. Some just stared at him, while others whispered amongst themselves, freezing when they noticed him looking at them. The sight was a bit off, but he didn't have enough time to think about it before Olivia was whisking him out of the room.

"I'm sorry about all the stairs," Olivia apologized. The next room was small, and had nothing but a winding staircase in it. The two outer walls were made of glass. "Courtney wouldn't get an elevator. Said that it would be good for our cardiovascular fitness if we didn't get them. Which, you know, is true, but it doesn't make it any less annoying."

David didn't mind the climb too much, but the apology was appreciated. It was nice to know that Olivia was thinking of him first. Most people never had that courtesy.

Eventually, they arrived at the top floor. Olivia took him down a hall with white walls and plants every five steps to a door at the far side. She pushed the door open without knocking and held it open for him, gesturing inside with a smile. He accepted the invitation, and Olivia closed the door behind them.

The room was the prettiest he'd seen yet. Two of the walls were made of glass, and the other two were covered with bookshelves and filing cabinets. There were plants in white pots in every corner, and the chandelier on the ceiling was the biggest one he'd ever seen. In the middle of the room was a simple, smooth white desk, which had nothing but a laptop and a few piles of paper and pens on it.

Behind the desk sat a pretty blonde woman, with short hair and cherry-red lips that David couldn't tell were natural or not. In front of the desk were two leather chairs, one empty, and one hosting a skinny man with glasses and ridiculously coloured hair. They both wore formal black suits, and had welcoming smiles on their faces.

"David Moss!" the woman stood up and extended her hand. "I'm so happy to finally meet you! I'm Courtney Miller, CEO and founder of Smosh Games."

David walked up to her and shook her hand, hoping to God that his grip was strong enough. "Nice to meet you too."

"And I'm Noah Grossman, head of game design," the man across the desk stated as David sat down.

"You're the guy who did Lady Baby!" David said excitedly, remembering his name from the credits he'd seen scroll so many times. "I love that game!"  
  
"Nice to know that my legacy persists," Noah smiled. "That's me."

"How was your trip?" Courtney asked as she sat down, smoothing out her jacket as she did. Everything about her seemed proper and pristine. She was the picture-perfect example of a CEO. "I hope you didn't have any trouble."

"No, the flight was good," David assured her. "Was the best one I've ever been on, actually."

"And the taxis?" she asked. "Olivia picked them out herself, to make sure there wasn't any trouble. I hope she made good choices."

"They were as good as taxis can get," David replied, before instantly wondering if that sounded stupid.

"I'm glad to hear that," Courtney cleared her throat. "Well, I'm sure you're excited, so let's get started, shall we? Noah, how about you explain the game."

"Gladly," Noah reached into a briefcase sitting next to his chair and pulled out what looked like a metal headband, with a black screen circling the middle of it. On the back were two silver rods that looked like they were used to plug it into something. "I've been working on it for years. It's like a baby to me."  
  
"What is it?" David asked as he stared at the headband. It didn't look like any controllers he'd ever seen.

"This game is no normal game, Mr. Moss, and it does not have an ordinary controller," Noah grinned. There was a certain proudness in his voice, like a soccer mom explaining how her son had scored the winning goal in yesterday's game to anyone who would pretend to listen. "This is the connector!"  
  
"The what?' David tilted his head.

"The connector," Noah repeated, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Our game isn't like any other one ever done before, Mr. Moss. We've created an entire virtual reality, and this is what will connect you to it."  
  
David's jaw dropped. "You're kidding!"  
  
"I'm glad to say that I am not," Noah's grin grew even wider. "This bad boy has the capability to transport you out of this world and into one completely comprised of code. I'd explain how it worked, but I doubt I'd make much sense. Half of my programmers don't even understand it."

"You've created a virtual reality?" David exclaimed. He'd been expecting some sort of game with heightened graphics, not something that only existed in movies. He could barely comprehend what he was hearing.

"We have," Noah nodded. "Don't worry: it's already been tested on a few animals to make sure it causes no neurological damage. It's completely safe. We want you to tell us how you find the graphics and the gameplay, to make sure that the game would be enjoyable for general audiences. Our animals couldn't exactly tell us that."

"Woah," David blinked a few times. He hadn't thought that this could get any more awesome, and yet here they were. The people sitting in front of him had created the biggest gaming advancement in history, and they wanted him to be a part of it. That thought seemed surreal, and yet it was reality. He could barely stop himself from squealing in excitement. "What's the game about?"  
  
"It's a team game," Noah started to explain. "That's why we chose you and all the other best gamers in the world. We don't want the testing process to take years, after all, and we want to cover all the game's aspects. You and your team have to make your way through a hundred levels, each one more difficult than the last. A single death resets you to the beginning of the level. There are a wide scope of landscapes, and you'll never encounter the same boss twice. No two playthroughs will ever be the same. I guarantee you that it will be the most subversive and entertaining game you will ever play. It makes Lady Baby seem like a mobile app."

"When do we start?" he asked, practically bouncing in excitement. That sounded  _epic._  It was hard to imagine how any game would be even as good as Lady Baby, let alone better. David couldn't wait to begin.

Courtney laughed at his obvious impatience. He wondered if the rest of the beta testers had acted like he was. "We have some paperwork for you to sign first, unfortunately."  
  
That was enough to calm him down a bit. If there was one thing he hated, it was paperwork. It was the main thing that had stopped him from becoming a cop. The concept of desk-duty was too much for him to handle. "What paperwork?"  
  
"It might seem daunting," she said as she slid a pile of papers about as thick as his arm toward him. She wasn't wrong; it looked absolutely terrifying. "But you only have to sign twenty times. It's just some legal stuff, is all. We don't want to risk anything."

Part of him wanted to read through it all, but the pile was so big that reading it seemed impossible, and definitely tiring. David was sure that there was no way he was strong enough to make it through it all. So he opted for the easy version. "What exactly will I be signing?"  
  
"The usual," Courtney explained. "That you agree to do this, and accept all liability. Those sorts of things. It's only so long because Olivia was too uptight to let there be any room for error."  
  
"Love you too babe!" Olivia shouted from the back of the room.

"All right," David smiled. "Give me a pen."  
  
Courtney did, and he started flipping through the papers, not bothering to look at the words as he searched for black lines. Noah and Courtney watched him as he did, making sure he didn't miss a single one.

The thought of them tricking him didn't even cross his mind. They seemed too professional to be scammers. After all, what was the worst they could do? He had nothing to worry about, and so he didn't worry at all.

Once he was done, Courtney swept the papers into her lap and handed them to Olivia, who took them over to a filing cabinet. "Okay, David, that was all. You're free to start. Olivia will take you to the testing room, and Noah will plug you in. I hope you enjoy the game."

"I hope I do too," David replied as he and Noah stood up and started to follow Olivia out. Courtney waved goodbye, and then the three of them exited her office.

Olivia took them down the same set of stairs, and onto the second floor. Whenever David looked into any of the workspaces, he saw that all the employees were watching them, their eyes wide. He didn't hear the sound of typing once. To say it was eerie was an understatement. If it wasn't for his excitement, it would probably have unnerved him a lot more than it did.

Noah pushed open a door halfway down the hall, and they all stepped inside. It was a small room, with a simple black chair that you could find in a dentist's office in the middle. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all grey, and wires ran from the chair to the floor. On each wall was a door.

"Please, sit," Noah instructed, pointing to the chair. David complied, and Noah slipped the headband over his head. He pushed down, and David heard a click.

Olivia clipped a few wires onto his fingers, which weren't too tight. She also slipped a few pads onto his chest, to "regulate his heartbeat." Both of them assured him that everything was safe again, but as Olivia put it, they didn't want to take any chances.

When she was finally done, she shot Noah a thumbs-up. Noah looked down at David. "Are you ready?"  
  
"Absolutely," David replied. He would have nodded, but the headband was too secure to let him move his head.

"Let's get started then," Noah smiled, pressing a button on the back the chair. The headband started warm up, and David could hear a beeping.

As he waited for the game to start, David noticed that one of the doors on the wall was slightly ajar. Through the sliver between the door and the wall, he could see a room identical to this one. A woman was sitting in the chair, with almond eyes and purple hair with long black roots. Her wrists were secured to the armband, and an IV was injected into her arm. Her face was stained with streams of mascara, as if she had been crying.

He narrowed his eyes, which made Olivia follow his gaze and instantly pull the door shut, before shooting a panicked look at Noah. For a few seconds, he started to panic. Who was that? Why was there an IV in her arm? What had happened to her?  
  
There had to be an explanation, surely. An easy one. Perhaps the game was emotional, and she had some sort of health condition. That would make perfect sense.

He opened his mouth to ask Noah and Olivia, to make sure that everything was fine. But before he could get a single word out, the beeping stopped, and everything went white.


	4. Chapter 4

His vision returned a few seconds later, to the sight of what looked like barn doors. The red and white paint was chipped, and he could smell the wood rotting. On his sides, above his head, and at his feet was metal, boxing him in and only giving him one way to go. He found himself wearing a brown rainjacket, sweatpants, running shoes, and t-shirt, all of which were comfortable and easy to move in. Seeing no other option, David pushed the doors open.

It was a barn, though there were no animals. There was no second story. The ground was covered in hay, and there were huge piles scattered around the room. It was mildly cold, and David couldn't tell where any of the light that illuminated the room was coming from. There were no windows or lamps. On the left wall, right next to a pile of hay, was a group of tally marks that looked like they had been carved into the peeling paint and wet wood with a knife. David counted fourteen of them.

What was most noticeable, however, were the people. There were five of them, four men and one woman. A stocky brown-haired man had his knees pulled to his chest in the corner. Another man, the skinniest of the lot, looked like he had been pushing hay into a pile with his feet. A black-haired man with glasses had a bottle of beer in his hand, matching the empty bottles scattered on the floor and the full ones in a pile next to him. Lastly, there was a tall, silver-haired man leaning against a wall, his arm around a short woman who had her head on his shoulder. It was the same woman David had seen through the door, except here, her hair was completely purple and her face was clean.

They were all frozen in place, their eyes on him. The doors slammed shut behind him, and David noticed that a clock counting down from fifteen minutes had appeared above it before turning to look back at the people.

No one spoke for the longest time. David didn't know what to say. They all looked... exhausted. None of them looked excited to see him.

"Um... my name's David," he introduced himself awkwardly. "You may know me as Lasercorn."

He expected them to recognize his username. His most popular hate video on YouTube had ten million views, after all. But all he got in response was blinking and sighs.

The woman moved her head off the man's shoulder, but he gripped her tighter to make her stay in place. "Don't bother, Mars."

"He has a right to know," the woman replied, turning to face him. "We owe him that, at the least."

"We don't owe him anything," the man retorted. "He won't believe you, anyway. They never do."

"That doesn't mean that we shouldn't tell him!" the woman replied, shaking her head. "It's the least we can do."

"Mari-" the man started, but the woman, Mari, cut him off.

"Wes," Mari sighed, like this was an argument they'd had many times. "Let me do this. Please, just let me do this."

The man looked like he wanted to argue, but he kept his mouth closed and let her go. She stood up and brushed hay off her pants, before walking up to David and extending her hand. "I'm Mari."

"Nice to meet you, Mari," David replied as he shook her hand.

"No, it's not nice to meet her," the man who had been piling hay pronounced. "If anything about this was  _nice,_  you wouldn't be here."

"Not now, Matthew," Mari breathed. "Not yet."

"Can someone explain to me what's happening, please?" David asked. This was not what he had been expecting when Noah had described the game to him. He'd been anticipating excited gamers and brilliant scenery, not... _this._

"What's happening?" the man who had been drinking laughed bitterly. "What's happening is that you're caught in a death trap,  _David._ You've just signed your death warrant!"

"Joven!" Mari yelled. "We've talked about this!"

"He'll learn the truth soon enough anyway, Mar," Joven yelled back. "What's the point of sugarcoating it? There's no way to explain anything about this without being harsh."

"We can't shock him!" Mari exclaimed. "If we hit him with everything at once, he'll shut down!"

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" David exclaimed. Everything about this felt off. These people were acting like he had just walked onto a battlefield and they were veterans, and it was starting to unnerve him.

"David," Mari said softly. "Everything Noah, Olivia, and Courtney told you was a lie. This game is not what they told us it was. Every damn part of it was a lie, an act to get you into that chair. They did it to all of us, and they've done it to you."

"They're really quite good at it," the man in the corner sighed.

"This game is... a... trap," Mari explained. "They lured you here, and now you're stuck. The only way out is to get through all a hundred levels. If we fail, we're sent back to level one, or, more accurately, here. To this barn."

"Noah told me that it reset you to the beginning of the level," David replied.

Joven leaned forward. "Noah _lied_."

"Well, what's so bad about that anyway?" David asked. "A hundred levels isn't that much. Not if you spend your time right. I could do that easily."

Wes threw his head back and laughed, though David hadn't said anything funny. "Easy. Easy! He thinks that this is going to be easy!"

"So did you, at the beginning," Mari shot back. "Don't blame him for the fact that he's new. We were all him at some point."

"Why wouldn't it be easy?" David asked. "We're the best gamers out there. We could do this easily."

"You haven't let her finish explaining yet," Matthew replied.

"David, your death doesn't rest you to the beginning. It resets the entire team to the beginning," Mari took a deep breath. "And if you die, you don't reset with us. There isn't any respawning here."

"So what, dying disconnects you from the game?" David shrugged. "That just adds some challenge. What's so bad about that?"

"It doesn't disconnect you from the  _game,_ " Joven took a swing of his beer. "It disconnects you from  _life._ "

"What?" David scoffed. This had to be a joke. There was no way these people were serious.

"If you die in the game, you die in real life," Mari explained. "I know you're not going to believe that, but it's the truth."

There were a few seconds of silence as David's mind whirled. Did they seriously expect him to take them seriously? For him to actually believe that? What did they take him as, an idiot?

This had to all be an act. He was sure that they all found this hilarious. Did they do this for every new player? They must all think that they were so clever. To give them credit, they did have a pretty good act. If only he was gullible enough to fall for it.

"I don't believe you," he stated, crossing his arms.

Wes stood up and stretched. "Told you. They never believe it at first. How much longer till weapons?"

Matthew glanced at the clock. "Forty seconds."

"I call the machete," Joven announced as he staggered to his feet.

"No way!" Matthew argued. "You had the machete last time!"

"Yeah, and I  _rocked_  it!"

"You _rocked_  it just as well as Flitz _rocked_ fighting that demon!"

There were close to eight minutes left on the clock. As soon as the last two numbers turned to zero, the floor between David and Mari opened up, and a rack of weapons shot up. David almost fell backward from shock.

In seconds, everyone was on it, grabbing their weapons of choice. David couldn't shove his way in, no matter how hard he tried. The five of them formed a solid, unbreakable wall, and he had to wait until Mari grabbed a wickedly sharp spear to get in.

Every weapon imaginable lay in front of him. Swords, bows, spears, shields, crossbows, nunchucks, a pair of goddamn scissors; everything he could think of and more. Eventually, he decided on a decently-long sword that came with its own scabbard, which he eagerly secured around his waist.

Before he left, however, something caught his eye. Sitting near the bottom of the rack was a green lighter, so small that he'd almost missed it. He bent over and picked it up.

Something about fire had always enthralled him. Ever since he was young, he'd loved watching them. Campfires had transfixed him so completely that he'd never been able to focus on whatever everyone there with him had been saying. They were beautiful and deadly at the same time, and he loved that about them.

The lighter probably wouldn't come in handy at any point, but he pocketed it anyway. It weighed next to nothing, so he couldn't see any reason not to. Once he could feel it resting against his leg, he stepped away from the weapon rack.

"Backpacks!" Mari announced. David glanced over, and saw that six backpacks had appeared against the left wall, all of them different colours. He grabbed the orange one and unzipped it. Inside was a sleeping bag, a full water bottle, and a pack of salted beef.

Everyone else grabbed theirs and didn't even bother to look inside before slinging it over their shoulders. They made their way to the door and stood outside it, waiting for the final three minutes to run out. David stayed behind, still staring at the weapon rack to see if he missed anything. After a minute, he decided to grab a hunting knife and throw it in his bag.

The brown-haired man from the corner approached him. Without his knees to his chest, he looked a little intimidating, despite his kind brown eyes. "I'm Damien, by the way. I don't think Mari mentioned that."

"She didn't," David replied. "Nice to meet you, Damien."

Damien closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before walking back to the others. He had looked almost angry at David's words. At first, David couldn't realize why, but then he remembered what Matthew had said earlier. These people were  _really_  devoted to the act.

Only two minutes left. Behind him, the empty beer bottles refilled and restacked themselves perfectly against the wall, somehow not making a sound as they did.

One minute. The piles of hay Matthew had created started to crumble, the hay returning to the floor. The brown-haired man watched it go with a frown on his face.

Thirty seconds. The weapons rack disappeared into the floor.

Ten seconds. Everything went dark but the clock, alighting the entire room in a red glow.

One second. David heard the sound of a lock clicking open.

Zero seconds. The doors swung open, blinding David with the sunlight that streamed in. He covered his eyes to protect them, along with everyone else.

Once everyone's eyes adjusted to the light, Wes pulled his two swords out of their scabbards and gripped them tightly. Excitement started to flow through David's body. This was it! The game was finally going to start! The moment he'd been waiting for for a week was here, and he could barely contain himself from yelling in delight.

What dampened his mood, however, were the grim looks of determination written on everyone else's faces. They all looked like they'd rather be anywhere else but here. Like this was something they were being forced to do. It was almost enough to make him believe it wasn't an act. Almost, but not quite.

Because, really, what was more believable? That Smosh Games had set up a deathtrap for skilled gamers that they were somehow getting away with, or that these people he had just met were playing a prank on him?

"Alright, everyone," Mari sighed as she slammed the butt of her spear onto the floor, making the entire ground shake. "Let's get started."


	5. Chapter 5

As soon as David stepped out the door, the barn disappeared, disintegrating into thin air and leaving no evidence that it had ever been there behind. What took its place was grass, as far as he could see, spanning in every direction. Every strand was the same dark green colour and reflected the sunlight beautifully. Above them, the sun burned brightly, and yet it wasn't too hot.

Everything looked insanely realistic, from the plants to the sky to the unevenness of the ground. If David didn't know better, he would've thought that he was in a real grassland.

"Plains," Mari sighed. "This is what, the third time?"

"For us? Yes," Joven replied, stabbing the ground with his machete.

"Landscapes repeat?" David asked. He'd been expecting that they'd never see the same one twice.

"There's only one hundred levels," Mari sighed. "Each landscape has its own difficulty, so there's only five that you can start in. We've seen them all."

"Though we can run into beginning landscapes on other levels," Joven chipped in. "They only made one hundred landscapes, to go with the levels. You can't do that without reusing some of them every once in a while. For how long we've been in here, it'd be impossible for them not to."

  
"And how long has that been, exactly?" David questioned.

Before Joven could respond, a strong wind hit them, knocking David over. By the time he'd climbed back to his feet, everyone else was holding their breath.

A few seconds later, a deep, booming voice surrounded them. "First objective: there is one tree in these plains. In its leaves are six amulets. Find them and bring them back to spawn point to advance."

There was a brief pause to make sure the voice was done. Finding a tree? David could see why this was the first level.

"Well, that sounds easy," he announced.

Mari frowned. "Nothing is easy here. There's always a catch."

"Do you know where the tree is?" Matthew asked hopefully, pulling on the string of his bow. "From one of your past times?"

"We never get the same objective twice," Joven turned to look at David. "Noah didn't lie to you about that part."

"The anthill was North last time," Mari suggested. "They might have just replaced it with a tree. It's as much of a lead as we're going to get."

"North, then," Wes agreed. Mari nodded at him, and then started walking forward. Everyone followed her. Seeing no other options, David followed as well.

»•«

It took three hours to find the tree. Those three hours had been the most boring of his life. After spending so much time waiting for this, having to wait an extra three damn hours was almost more than he could take. David had been about to suggest that they'd been going in the wrong direction when it appeared in front of them.

The tree was the most massive one he'd ever seen. The trunk was as thick as the width of three of his arms, and the branches reached so high that they went above the clouds, and looked like they spanned for miles. From his viewpoint, it seemed that their task was impossible. How the hell were they going to find one amulet in that monstrosity, let alone six?

"Should we just start?" Joven asked after everyone had enough time to take the sight in.

"I don't see why not," Mari replied. "It's impossible to guess whatever's hiding up there. We don't have any other options."

"It's a plan, then," Wes sighed. "Damien and I will go first. Everyone, don't leave the group. Until we know what's up there, we stay within sight of each other. Understood?"

Everyone mumbled a small "yes," except for David. Who did this guy think he was, bossing him around like that? There was no way he was a better gamer than David was. With how much muscle that guy had, he must have spent a lot of gaming time on going to the gym. What a worthless sacrifice of time.

"Damien," Wes instructed. Damien walked to his side, sliding his longsword back into its scabbard. "Let's go."

As the four people on the ground watched, Wes and Damien started to scale the tree, using knots in the trunk to pull themselves up. David had to admit, it was a little impressive to see them climb. The two of them and their physics weren't exactly eyesores, after all.

Once they reached the branches of the tree, Wes grabbed Damien's ankles and hoisted him down, so Damien was hanging with his head towards the ground. With the length of Wes' arms and Damien's entire body, they were just long enough for Joven to grab Damien's hands and get himself pulled up.

Matthew went up next. Before Damien came back down, Mari grabbed David's arm and pulled him aside. "David. I know you don't believe us, but please. Stay with the group. You're in a lot of danger."

Damien dropped before David could answer, which was a relief, because he wasn't going too. He walked forward and grabbed Damien's hands, which were surprisingly calloused. Faster than he could blink, Wes pulled them up, and then David had to grab onto a branch to stop himself from falling.

Besides for the sunlight peeking in through the few breaks in the leaves, it was almost pitch black inside the tree. Branches crossed and twisted around each other, forming a complicated, thick maze. Climbing looked easy and impossible at the same time.

Once Mari was finally up and gripping onto Wes for support, they started moving. Everyone started going in the same direction; up. Matthew and Mari had put knives between their teeth.

David didn't follow them. He wasn't going to be their sidekick in this game, doing whatever the biggest man said like a caveman. When he first accepted the beta offer, he'd done it wanting to show Courtney and the rest of the Smosh Games employees that he was the best gamer in the world. He wasn't going to give up on that goal so easily.

Climbing was hard. David wasn't exactly the most athletic man, and after so much time in his chair and bed back home, his muscles strained under the execution it took to pull his bodyweight. It seemed like a twig was scratching him every second. But it was going to take a lot more than that to make David give up.

If the others had noticed he was gone, they showed no sign of it. He didn't even hear them call his name. It was for the best, he supposed. They'd only get in his way.

The further he got up the tree, the darker it got, the leaves growing closer and closer together. For the first time since starting to climb, David doubted his ability to do this. How was he supposed to find an amulet if he couldn't see it? He'd been depending on noticing them reflect the sunlight, but if that was gone...

Stop it, David, he scolded himself. You're Lasercorn, the greatest gamer of all time. You can do anything.

That was when he heard rustling behind him.

He turned sharply, scanning the branches with the little light he had. Had the others found him already?

Nothing came into is his vision. After a few seconds, David relaxed. It must have been the wind blowing through the leaves. This was the first level. What could it have possibly been?

By the time he turned to look forward again, he realized what Mari had meant when she said there was always a catch.

A creature was staring at him, perched on a branch less than a meter away. It almost looked like a man on steroids, from the way its body was shaped. But every inch of its body was covered in hair, its nails were so long that they were better described as claws, and a tail swung from its back. What was most terrifying, however, was its teeth, which were wickedly sharp and looked like they could tear him in two with one bite.

It opened its mouth and let loose a primal roar, making the entire tree shake. David was frozen in shock. This wasn't like a video game. That thing looked too real, and was too close to him. His fight or flee instinct was in a battle with itself, and David couldn't get himself to move.

That is, until it pounced forwards far faster than any man could, and David lost his grip and screamed.

He fell for a solid meter before landing on another branch, managing to hold onto it before falling even more. Frantically, he gripped at the hilt of his sword and pulled it out, before starting to pull himself onto the branch. If he wanted to win this, he needed to be on his feet.

The creature landed on the edge of the branch on all fours and roared again, before slowly making its way to him, like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse. David managed to get to his feet and brandish his sword, trying to calm his racing heart.

It's not real, he tried to remind himself. It's not real!

But it felt real. It felt very, very real. As David stared into the creature's eyes, he couldn't help but feel like he was staring his own death in the face.

Once again, the creature pounced on him, swiping at him with its claws. David took a step back and tried to strike it with his sword. He managed to make a long cut on its side, which made it retract long enough for him to take a few more steps back.

As he watched it touch its wound, he hoped that it was too hurt to fight. But things refused to go his way, and all it seemed to do was make it angrier.

The creature ran at him, forcing David to step back furiously until his back was against the trunk. He tried to use his sword to shield himself, but the creature knocked it easily out of his hand. David watched it fall and land on a thicket of branches some distance below, before turning back to the creature just in time to see it clamp its jaws onto the side of his leg.

Red-hot pain coursed through him, making him scream in anguish. The edges of his vision started to turn black. It was the worst thing he'd ever felt.

Why had they included that in the game? What developer would want to put their players in that much pain? That couldn't be a good marketing strategy.

When the creature let him go, he couldn't even feel it. He felt like he was on the verge of fainting. As the creature got on its hind legs and readied for another strike, David didn't even try to defend himself. He was too weak too.

Suddenly, the branch shook, like something had landed on it. Before the creature could turn around to face its new threat, the sound of metal tearing through flesh ripped through the air, and the creature screamed. There was a sword protruding from its chest, right through its heart. When David's saviour pulled the sword out, the creature crumbled, falling straight through the branches below them. Less than a second later, David heard the sickening crunch of its corpse hitting the ground.

Standing on the branch was Wes, his body covered in the creature's blood. He cleaned his sword with his shirt before looking up at David, his face twisted with anger.

"What. The Hell. Did you think. You were doing?" his words were laced in poison. If David hadn't been bleeding profusely, he might have answered. Instead, he had to use all of his concentration to stop himself from falling off the tree.

Before Wes had the chance to start yelling at him, a loud whistle rang out, followed by Matthew's voice. "I've got one!"

"Everyone get to the base of the tree!" Mari yelled. "Injury check!"

Wes sighed and picked David up, before hopping down and grabbing David's sword. David knew that he'd probably get his ass chewed out soon, but in that moment, he didn't care.

He was alive. He hadn't made a complete fool of himself for the company by dying so soon, and that was all that mattered to him.


	6. Chapter 6

Wes managed to carry him all the way to the ground, swinging from branches and jumping around like he was Tarzan. Despite being weighed down by David, he was the first one to hit the base of the tree. He dropped him as soon as they were down, and David winced in pain as his back git the grass.

Mari arrived next, closely followed by Damien. As soon as her feet were on the ground, Wes rushed over to her to make sure she wasn't hurt. While they were fussing over each other, David realized that they must have been together. Once he came to that conclusion, he scolded himself for not reaching it sooner; it was painfully obvious, just from the way they looked at each other.

He credited it to the fact that he'd never been in a serious relationship. There had been a few guys in college, but none of them stuck. David never felt enough of a connection to any of them to bother giving up any gaming time to hang out with them, and the relationship crumbled soon after. The longest one had only lasted for four months, and that was only because the guy was the most handsome man David had ever seen. Romance was something he had never wanted or needed, and after all those attempts, he hadn't attempted it after graduating.

And from the way Mari and Wes were fawning over each other as if the other person was all that mattered in the world, it seemed that he'd made the right call. What a waste of time and energy.

Joven arrived next, and after him, Matthew, the amulet hanging around his neck. It had a simple design; a brown gemstone wrapped in rope. He could almost see out of the centrepiece, for how translucent it was, and it caught the light beautifully. It was perfectly carved, but then again, this was a game. The game designers could've easily fixed any mistake they'd made on it. Most likely, they had.

"One down, six to go," Matthew said with a grin as he took the amulet off his neck and held it in the air, obviously proud of his accomplishment. Everyone else looked happy about it too. By this point, the pain in his leg was starting to die down enough for David to be able to focus, and he was pretty sure he wasn't going to pass out. Not yet, at least.

The mood was instantly broken when Wes spun to look at David, looking enraged. "What in the world were you thinking, running off like that? You could've reset us all!"

"I wanted to..." David didn't know how to finish that sentence. How do you say 'to get all the credit' without sounding like a jackass? These people were supposed to be his team. It wouldn't serve him very well if they all hated each other.

Then again, teamwork had never been David's strong suit.

"You thought you could find them all by yourself, huh? That you could be the hero, and we'd all be kissing your shoes?" Wes crossed his arms. "Fat load of good that plan did for you, huh? You'd be dead right now if it wasn't for me! Perhaps I should've done us all a favour and let that thing kill you! There's no way your replacement could be this stupid!"

"Wes!" Mari grabbed his arm forcefully and pulled him towards her. "That's enough."

As the two of them started to bicker, Matthew walked over to David and kneeled at his side, the amulet back on his neck. He pulled his backpack off and plopped it on the ground next to him before pulling back the zipper and pulling out what looked like gauze.

"Where'd you get that from?" David asked as Matthew rolled back his pants to examine the wound.

"I was working on my bachelor's degree in medicine before I came here," Matthew replied. Up close, David could get a good look of Matthew's appearance. He wasn't the most handsome man he'd ever seen, but he wasn't ugly, either. Matthew's looks could best be summed up as simple and pleasant. "I'm the closest thing to a doctor we have, so the gamemakers put a first aid kit in my backpack. Try not to get hurt again; I don't have too many supplies."

"You don't look like a doctor," David grumbled. 

"And what exactly does a doctor look like, hmm? We don't just carry our stethoscopes around with us wherever we go, you know," he poured cold water onto David's wound, making him howl in pain. "Besides, I'm not a doctor. I was going to drop the class and go into Computer Sciences at the end of the semester, if I had gotten the chance to. Now shut up and let me work."

Mari and Wes were done their argument by then. David focused on their conversation with Joven as Matthew worked. Damien stood with them, but he wasn't saying much.

"We're going to have to find a way to kill those things if we're going to get the other amulets," Wes stated. "They're better climbers than us. If they come at us in packs, it'll be hard to fight them off."

"Knowing how the game works, the amulets will get higher up as we go along, and there'll be more of them guarding them. And without the light, how are we going to find them?" Mari asked.

"This seems a bit hard for a first level," Joven sighed.

"If we could ward the creatures down, to where we had less light and branches..." Mari started.

"And what, fight every single one of them in the entire tree? There's no way we'll get out of that without a casualty," Joven replied. "They'd all be on us in seconds. That's game over, and I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on restarting on the same day we started."

"None of us are," Mari scoffed, before smacking him in a playful manner.

Matthew was almost done with his leg. To David's surprise, there wasn't much blood soaking through the gauze. With how deep that bite was, he was expecting his leg to be completely red by now, and that nothing would be able to block it.

"The gamemakers tend to go easy on the first level, if Mari and Joven can be believed," Matthew explained, as if he had read David's mind. "You're lucky about that. If this had been real, you'd be out cold right now, if you hadn’t died by then."

"So I'm good?" David asked uncertainly.

"You're good," Matthew nodded. "But don't expect to have this luck in the next level. Another wound like this will kill you. Got it?"

"Got it," David replied.

"Good," Matthew sighed, before nodding at the other four people. "Now, let's wait for them to agree on a plan."

The two of them watched the others bicker. David heard multiple plans be thrown out, but none of them stuck. There was always a problem, a knitch in the armour that was easily exploitable, and then there was an argument. David hoped that these people were better at fighting than they were talking, because if they weren't, then they were all fucked.

David looked down at the gauze, which was only lightly tinged with red now. His leg felt unnatural. It still hurt like hell, but it was almost as if his body knew that he should be bleeding right now. That something was different, off, and unusual. In a way, he almost wished that it was pouring blood, just to get rid of the uneasiness that was spreading through him.

Did his body know, he wondered, that it was in a game? That none of this was real? There was no way it could. The air tasted just like any natural air, and everything looked perfectly normal. Everything was so detailed that David wondered how the game designers hadn't gone insane while making it.

Even when he grabbed a fistful of dirt to examine it, he couldn't find any faults. The soil was all different sizes, and the colour changed slightly. It was rough against his palm. To say he was impressed was an understatement.

Despite that, the game was starting to lose its wonder for him. It was probably the pain, which was still going strong, much to his dismay. But it felt deeper than that. David felt like he was in real danger, no matter how much he tried to tell himself he wasn't. His brain had made up its mind.

Everything looked real. Everything felt real. The pain felt real. And everyone around him was telling him that this wasn't what he'd been told it was. That this was a trap, and that he had unwillingly entered a life-or-death situation that he couldn't escape from. After his time in the tree, it was hard to attribute their words to a prank anymore. The possibility that they were telling the truth was almost too much for him to handle.

Matthew leaned back in the grass and started to grab it with his hands, as if he was trying to pull it out. David tried to distract himself by rolling his pants back down his leg. He couldn't think about that right now. By entertaining that idea, he was making it seem more real. If he let himself believe it, he was pretty sure he'd break down. So, desperately, he tried to make all thoughts of it disappear from his mind.

As he trailed his hands back up, he felt a bump in his pocket. He reached in and pulled the object out. It was his lighter, which he'd completely forgotten about. The metal and plastic on it glittered beautifully in the sun. 

David flicked it on and watched the small flame dance in the light wind, flickering orange and yellow and red, growing and shrinking every few seconds. Holding it gave him confidence. This little contraption could start a forest fire, and he was the one wielding it. That gave him a rush of power.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Give me the amulet," he demanded, sitting up suddenly and looking over at Matthew, who has started to drop blades of grass onto his face in his boredom.

Matthew didn't even bother to sit up, though David couldn't see how what he was doing was more entertaining than a conversation. "Why?"

"Just give it to me," David replied impatiently. If he explained it to Matthew, he might try to stop him; and David didn't want to be stopped. He had humiliated himself in the tree, but that didn't mean that he couldn't make himself the hero in this situation.

"Saying please wouldn't hurt, you know," Matthew sighed, but he took the amulet off his neck and threw it at David anyway. He managed to catch it before it sailed over his shoulder.

He held it up by the rope in front of him, before flicking on the lighter. The flame was small, but it would suffice. Slowly, he started raising it to the amulet, careful not to damage it.

The flames licked at the stone, but they did no damage. Even the rope didn't seem to be harmed. The amulet was totally, completely fireproof, which was exactly what he had been hoping for.

Matthew finally sat up when David started limping towards the tree. "What are you doing?"

David didn't bother to answer. Up close, the tree looked even more imposing than before. He'd never gotten a good look at the trunk before, and looking up, being able to see through all the branches and at how tall the tree really was, made what he was about to do seem impossible.

But he was David Moss. He wasn't known for making smart, well thought out decisions. So while everyone else was bickering, and Matthew looked at him with piqued interest, David lit the lighter, watched the flame for a few seconds, and shoved it into a knot on the tree.


	7. Chapter 7

At first, nothing happened. The tree stubbornly refused to burn. For a few seconds, David just stood there, feeling like an idiot as Matthew stared at him with a shocked expression. How could one small flame take out a tree as massive as this one? It was a stupid plan.

Right when he was about to walk back to Matthew, just when he'd given up all hope, the fire started to spread.

It started out small at first. Small trails of fire spread from the knot and climbed up the tree like orange veins, wrapping around the trunk in a truly beautiful fashion. David was pretty sure it wasn't natural, but the sight of it was transfixing, and he found himself rooted in place. 

Mari, Damien, Joven, and Wes noticed just in time to see the flames hit the branches. Needless to say, it was enough to stop their argument.

There was no doubt in David's mind that this was unnatural now. As soon as it hit the first leaf, the fire spread like an explosion, going in every direction and completely engulfing the entire tree. In seconds, David found himself stepping back to avoid falling, burning branches.

He reached the others, who were all standing still, stunned. David hadn't exactly planned this far ahead, and now, he didn't know what to do. The heat radiating from the tree was enough to make him feel like it was dangerous to stay, but the sight was too impressive to make him want to move. It was the most glorious, untamed fire he had ever seen, and he wanted to enjoy every second of it.

That was, until he heard the screeching, and a burning creature flew out of the branches. It landed less than a meter from them, growling and spitting. Its skin was starting to turn black from the flames, which were still coursing through its body. Before it had the chance to attack, the fire did its job, and the creature stilled.

All it took was one glance up at the branches above them, and then everyone was running as fast as they could away from the tree. David wasn't sure how far those creatures could jump, and he didn't want to find out. If that one had been just a little closer...

He ran until his lungs burned and his legs ached, and then he ran some more. Matthew and Joven were right behind him, while Wes, Mari, and Damien seemed to be miles ahead, looking like they were having a competition to see who was the fastest. Eventually, Mari pulled to a stop, and everyone followed her lead.

They stood there for a few minutes, bent over and catching their breaths. David pulled his water bottle out of his bag and took a big swing. The tree still seemed too close, even though there was a large stretch of grass between it and them.

Grass! David thought wildly. Grass is flammable!

What the fuck had he done?

The fire showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. Thankfully, it didn't seem to spread to the grass, from what he could see. The gamemakers must've had mercy on him and confined the flames to the tree.

When they could all breath again, Mari turned to face him. Unlike Wes, the anger on her face was calm and controlled, and yet just as intimidating. "David?"

"Yes?" he replied, having a sinking feeling he knew exactly what she was about to say.

"What the fuck!" she yelled, clutching the staff of her spear in a way that was totally not terrifying at all.

It took David a few seconds to form words. "You were all arguing, so I just..."

Mari walked up to him and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling his face to her's. "I don't know how this wasn't obvious to you, but I'm going to clarify. We are a team. Do you know what teams do? They work together. And working together means that you talk things through with your teammates and agree on a plan that works. I know you're new to this, and I've really tried to be lenient, but if you don't start listening and working with us soon, then I'm going to make sure that you won't be a problem anymore. Now, are you going to start actually helping us, or am I going to have to save myself a world of pain and march you over to that damn tree and throw you in it!"

"Okay, that's enough," Joven grinned nervously as he gently grabbed Mari's arm and pulled her away. The two of them started engaging in a whispered conversation.

Matthew laughed from his spot beside David. "She can be a bit intense sometimes, can't she?"

"I'll say," David gulped. Mari was the only person he'd thought was on his side, but it seemed that even she had her limit.

If he wanted these people's trust and respect, he'd have to earn it.

Finally, Joven gave Mari a hug, ending their conversation. Mari wiped a tear from her eye and cleared her throat.

"Okay, everyone," she stated. "We need a game plan."

"We're going to need to wait for the flames to die down," Wes said, pointing out the obvious as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"Hopefully, the amulets are fireproof," Joven sighed. "Otherwise..."

Mari and Joven bother shuddered simultaneously, as if they could read each other's minds and were sharing a memory.

"They are," Matthew piped up. "David made sure of that, at least."

"Glad to know he thought that far ahead," Wes grumbled.

There were a few moments of silence as they watched the flames. Even from this distance, David could hear the screams of the creatures as they burned, and could see their corpses falling to the ground in droves. The entire area must smell like burning flesh by now.

"How long will it take for the fire to die down?" Matthew asked as he thrust his hands into his pockets.

"Who knows," Mari shrugged as she leaned her head against Wes' shoulder. "If the gamemakers are kind, minutes. If they aren't, it could be months. Whenever they decide to break away from the laws of nature, it's anyone's guess."

"The fire was raging pretty hard," David remarked. "It probably won't take very much longer."

Already, there was enough ash at the base of the tree to swim in, and the tree was still very much on fire. Getting the amulets would be a pain.

"Well, when it does," Wes glanced at David. "When the fire does stop, how about you find the amulets. David? This was your idea, after all."

David got his message loud and clear. That was a punishment. Finding the amulets could take hours if he wasn't lucky. Doing it alone...

He would've refused, but he knew it would have been a losing battle. All five of them seemed happy with the idea. In their defence, David would've jumped on the opportunity to stay as far away from that tree as possible if he was in their shoes.

"Okay," he agreed reluctantly.

Four hours later, the tree was still burning. David was pretty sure the gamemakers were doing this just to fuck with him at this point. The sun had set by now, and Wes was already out and snoring. David had no idea how Mari, who was using his chest as a pillow, was managing to sleep through that. Joven and Damien were out too, while he and Matthew stared at the tree.

But his eyes couldn't stay open forever, and soon, they drifted shut.

»•«

David awoke to the image of Matthew leaning over him. "Time to get started."

He instantly sat up. Sure enough, the fire was finally out. The ash pile had somehow gotten even bigger. It had to be at least as tall as him at this point.

How the fuck was he going to find six tiny stones in that thing?

The others had the decency to let him eat some of his salted beef before forcing him to start. Matthew literally pushed him forwards, which David would get him back for at some point. But David couldn't avoid the task, so he started making the trek towards the tree.

Before he left, Mari put the amulet around his neck before wishing him luck. David was pretty sure that she felt bad about snapping at him yesterday, and that thought almost made him forget how pissed he was at her for it, for daring to speak to him that way.

Almost.

His leg wasn't even bothering him anymore. Overnight, it seemed to have healed completely, besides for a throbbing pain that was minuscule compared to what it once was. Matthew had assured him that it was a first-level-only thing; multiple times. But it wasn't completely gone. A scar remained, like a reminder. It would be nice to see his real, perfectly fine leg once he beat the game.

It took him a lot less time than he would have preferred to reach the remains of the tree. The air stunk of charred flesh, and he could see some body parts in the ash. Even though he knew they were the remains of creatures, with the fur gone, they looked entirely too human. If he looked at one of the black limbs for too long, he couldn't help but feel unnerved.

Up close, the pile of ash seemed even more imposing, if that was even possible. It was at least twice his height, and looked like it was a mile long.

With a long, deep sigh, David drew his sword and started to sift through the ash. Every breath he took resulted in some of it going down his throat. If this went on too long, he'd end up with black throat. He'd somehow been hoping that the amulets would be easy to find, but as he quickly learned, that was far from the truth.

He had been going at it for an hour, sifting and slicing to no avail, when the amulet around his neck started to faintly glow. The more steps he took to his left, the brighter it got, almost as if it was guiding him. It only took a few steps for it to go out, and when David dug, he found a second, dark green amulet within seconds.

He wrapped it around his neck before kissing the brown one. Thank you, Mari. She must've known that it might come in handy, and for that, he could forgive her for yesterday.

After finding the second amulet, it only took a half hour to find the rest. By the time he'd found the last, purple amulet, his skin was almost completely black, and he as coughing every five seconds. The walk back to the others seemed long and tedious, and the second he got to them, he grabbed his water bottle and poured the rest of it down his throat.

Wes reached his hand out, and David placed all the amulets on his fingers. The silver-haired man held them up under the sunlight, like he wasn't sure if they were real. Did he seriously think that David could've forged them? And he called him the idiot.

"Let's head back," Wes announced. "We've finished the objective."

As everyone packed up their things, Mari patted David's back and helped him up. "Good job."

"Thanks," David managed to make himself smile, and she did the same.

"We don't have all day!" Joven called. He, Damien, and Wes had all started walking already, leaving the last three to catch up. Mari was at their side almost as soon as she started running.

David slung his backpack over his shoulder and followed at a slower rate. Despite everything, he felt proud. He was the one who figured out how to beat the tree, and who got almost all the amulets. So far, he was winning.

Level two, here I come.


	8. Chapter 8

It took far less time than David was willing to admit for the walk to become tiring. After spending who knows who long sifting through all that damn ash, he was utterly exhausted. The fact that everyone else was walking at a brisk pace didn't help, and David soon found himself lagging behind.

An hour in, Mari took pity on him and called for a break. They found the flattest piece of land they could and sat down, pulling all their food and water out of their bags and digging in. As Joven soon informed him, their supplies would reset when they went they went to the next level, so there was no point in saving it any longer. That news was far from unwelcome, as it gave David an excuse to down Matthew's water, seeing as he was all gone.

Far too soon, they started moving again. This time, Matthew walked with him, slowing down his pace so they were side-by-side. The others seemed to slow too, though if it was out of kindness or exhaustion on their parts, David couldn't tell you. Every second, the sun seemed to get hotter, which was not helping much.

"I was the guy before you, you know," Matthew stated after a few minutes of awkward silence between them, filled only by the sounds of David's heavy breathing. "I've only been here for one playthrough. There's a lot of things I'm still in the dark about too."

"One playthrough," David repeated. "You've already tried once?"

Matthew nodded. "Made it to level seven before..."

"Someone died," David finished. He remembered what Noah had said, about a death resetting the level. Who had it been? Mari? Damien?

"His name was Flitz," Matthew sighed. "He was even nicer than Mari when it came to showing me what was up, even if he'd only been there for one playthrough himself."

"Mari completely snapped at me yesterday," David huffed. There was a good enough distance between them and the others that he was sure Mari couldn't hear him, so he continued. "I wouldn't exactly call her the nicest person out there."

"We all have our weaknesses," Matthew shrugged. "You can't expect her to be perfect."

"She threatened to kill me!" David exclaimed.

"She was angry!" Matthew argued. "She never actually would've killed you. You haven't gotten to know her yet. Or any of us, really. Don't judge us at our worst when you haven't seen us at our best."

David scoffed. "Where did you rip that cheesy line off of? A magazine that incorrectly quoted Marilyn Monroe?"

"This, this right here, if exactly why she snapped," Matthew rolled his eyes. He pulled his knife out and started rolling it between his fingers. David didn't know if he was doing it to be threatening or not. "For how long she's been in here, you can understand how she'd be at her breaking point. I'm surprised she hasn't lost it yet."

"And how long has she been in here, exactly?" David asked. This was a beta process. He doubted it could take more than a few months, at the most, and he was sure that she could choose to leave at any time. Mari couldn't have been in her for too long. She definitely hadn't been in her long enough to go insane.

"I don't think she knows, exactly," Matthew replied. "Two years, at least, though I'm sure its been longer than that."

David stopped dead in his tracks. "Two years?"

"At the least," Matthew took a deep breath. "Her and Joven both. They've been here the longest. Then Damien, Wes, me, and you, if I remember it correctly. We don't like to talk about it often. It's too depressing."

"There's no way it's been a year," David shook his head as he started walking again, trying to catch up to Matthew, who hadn't waited for him. "No beta process would last that long."

Matthew looked at him. "You still haven't accepted it, have you?"

"Accepted what?" David asked.

"The truth," Matthew sighed. "The bite wasn't enough for you, huh?"

"What are you..." David started, but he finished his own thought. He was talking about what they'd told him in the barn. How this was a death trap. That if he died here, he'd die in real life. That there was no escape unless they beat all the levels. What he'd originally assumed was a prank.

It had been over a day now, and they still hadn't given it up. They were still acting like it was real. And after what had happened in that tree...

"It's not real," David replied, his voice so weak that he couldn't even convince himself. "You're lying."

Matthew stopped and pointed at David's leg. "Tell me, David; why would a game meant for commercial audiences include pain that intense?"

"Because-" he had no answer. There was no answer. It made absolutely no logical sense to make a game that put consumers in executing pain. Not if you intended to sell it.

"Trust me, I wish all of this was a lie," Matthew's voice shook slightly. "I wish that Flitz's death was just a bunch of lines of code. That I'd get to see him again, alive and well, if I get out of this game. But it's not. You're going to have to accept that if you want to make it out of here alive. I did, and everyone else did. This is real, David. Everything we've told you is real."

Everyone had stopped walking to look at them now. At some point, Matthew had put his hands on David's shoulders. He couldn't even feel them.

Desperately, David tried to think of something, to find a justification to convince himself that Matthew was full of shit. But his mind only pulled up blanks. Everything made too much sense to dismiss. The pain. The explanation. Everyone's set determination and exhaustion, their attitude towards playing. And that bag he'd seen carted out of the building, the one that had a human hand fall out of it, as if there was a corpse inside. Flitz's corpse, most likely. They all fit together like puzzle pieces, and the picture they formed was enough to make David collapse.

It was too much to handle. David broke down into ugly, heavy sobs. How could this be real? How could anyone do this to him? To anyone?

He could die here. He could've died yesterday. He could die tomorrow. All here, miles away from his family, from Sabrina and everyone else he'd ever called a friend. His hopes and dreams and aspirations could all die here, with him, in a place that wasn't even real. And then they'd cart his body out like it was nothing, and burn him or bury him somewhere no one would ever find out what happened to him. They wouldn't even bother to check if the body bag was completely zipped up.

Tears streamed down his face in torrents. He was on the ground, curled up on his side. The rest of the world might as well have not been there, for how much he noticed it. It was just him and his horrible thought, making him cry even harder, feeding the programmed grass with his misery.

Suddenly, he felt strong arms on his shoulders, and the sting of a slap across his face. His vision cleared enough to see who it was; Wes. Instead of anger on his face, there was a hint of sadness. He was trying to comfort him, David realized, in a way that would work for him. "Get a hold of yourself!"

To no one's surprise, that didn't work. The tears kept coming, and when David put his hands to his face and removed them, he found them soaked. How many people had Wes slapped, he wondered? How many people had been exactly where he was? How many people had died here?

Wes shook him a little, before what looked like Mari ripped him off and took his place. Her touch was far more gentle, but still firm.

"David! David, listen to me!" she took his hands in hers, ignoring their wetness, and wiped some tears out of his eyes as if she had done this a million times before. "Breath, okay? Focus on me and breath."

She started taking deep breaths, and David tried to follow her. To his surprise, it actually did calm him down. The heavy flow of tears began to slow down to a trickle.

"I know this is scary," Mari started as soon as his vision was no longer blurred. She gave his hands a reassuring squeeze and shot him a smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Trust me, I know. We've all been in your shoes before. Scared and confused, barely being able to form a coherent thought as we realized exactly where we were. You're not alone, David. You're a part of this team now, even though we all would've preferred if this team didn't exist. We are here for you, no matter what. We always will be. And we're going to get you the fuck out of here. You're not going to die here, David. I'm going to make sure of that."

With those words, she pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her back, burying his head into her shoulder while he did. She didn't seem to mind, and they stayed like that for a while. Her touch was far more comforting than it had any right to be.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you yesterday," she whispered into his ear after a few seconds. "I lost my temper. You didn't deserve that. It'll never happen again."

David pulled away and nodded. The tears had stopped by that point. Reality had sunk in. He was here. There was no changing that. And if he wanted to get out, he would have to get to his damn feet and start moving. He would accomplish nothing by staying here.

Mari got to her feet and extended her hand, helping him up. Damien patted his back reassuringly as Joven shot him a smile. Even Wes nodded at him in assurance. For the first time, he actually felt a connection to these people, no matter how small it was. This team might be forced, and a little dysfunctional in all honesty, but it was a team nonetheless. And David was its newest member.

"You may be an asshole," Matthew said from behind him. "But we're stuck with you. Welcome to the team, bud."

"Let's go," David sniffled, wiping his eyes. His was done with crying. "Let's beat this son of a bitch."

Mari nodded and started walking away, taking Wes' hand in hers. Everyone followed her. David was still exhausted, but his newfound determination energized him enough to keep up with everyone else's pace.

"Told you she was nice," Matthew smiled from beside him.

David didn't answer.

It took a solid two hours to get to where the barn used to be. There was a circle made of perfectly rounded, gray stones sitting in the middle of the clearing, their only sign that they were in the right place. They walked up to it.

"David," Mari held out her hand, "the amulets."

He took them off his neck and handed them to her. He'd been wearing them for so long that without them, his neck felt cold.

"Okay everyone," Mari announced as she held the amulets over the circle. "Here we go. Each level's going to be harder than the last, so you better be ready!"

"Great pep talk, Mars," Joven joked.

"Shut up Joven," Mari snapped back, but she had a smile on her face. With a deep breath, she dropped the amulets.

They landed on the grass soundlessly in a perfect pile, none of them touching the surrounding rocks. David gripped the hilt of his sword anxiously. Everyone else closed their eyes, as if they were waiting for something. For a few seconds, all he could hear was the soft wind blowing through the grass.

And then everything went white.

 


	9. Chapter 9

The first thing David noticed was the heat. Before the white even faded, he could feel it, beating down on him from all angles. He was sweating before he could even see.

When his vision finally returned, he found himself lying in the sand, even though he was confident he'd been standing up in the plains. Everyone else was on their backs too, all of them looking just as uncomfortable as David felt. Above them, the sun was so blinding that David couldn't even look in the sky without getting sunlight in his eyes.

Much like the plains, this landscape was primarily made of one thing; sand. The soft, orange rocks spanned for as far as his eye could see, forming dunes and crevasses. Unlike the plains, however, that wasn't the only thing the new biome had. There were dark green cactuses, some of them already blooming, peppered around the ground, along with rocks and weeds. David spotted a gecko a meter or so away from his hand, which hurriedly scampered off, and could hear the faint rattle of a snake. Vultures overhead cast shadows over the ground as they flew.

"Have you been here before?" David heard Wes ask from behind him.

"Unfortunately," came Joven's reply. There was a sense of pain to it. They must've lost someone here, either someone Joven cared about or someone who died horrendously. David hoped it was the first one.

A familiar blast of wind hit them, and the voice was loud enough to make the sand shake. "Second objective: somewhere in this desert, there is a town. Find the town and solve their problem. In thanks, their mayor will give you a totem. Use that totem to find the temple and get inside. On the top floor of the temple, there is a statue. When you all touch it at once, you will advance."

Then the voice when silent, making the only sound the rattle of snakes and the flapping of vulture's wings.

"They're making us have to find another thing?" David asked tiredly. The last thing he wanted to do was go on another three-hour walk.

"They always make us find 'another thing,'" Matthew huffed. "They never let us spawn near the objective."

"It would be too easy," Wes said through gritted teeth.

"We don't have to find anything," Mari piped up. "Joven and I know where the town is. We found it last time while looking for our objective."

"Don't they change locations?" David asked.

"Of objectives? Yes," Mari sighed. "But it wasn't technically part of the objective last time, so there's a chance it's still there. It's the best chance we have."

"Well then," Matthew swept out his hands. "Lead the way."

The way, apparently, was East. Before they started, Mari made sure everyone had taken off their jackets and tied them around their heads, covering everything but their eyes. According to her, it would keep them cool, and keep sand out of their mouths. David took her word for it, and they headed off.

It only took a few minutes for everyone to start to get exhausted. Walking here was ten times worse than the plains. With the sun as hot as it was, each step felt like ten. Sweat was pouring down his skin in sheets within an hour, and he could see it glistening on everyone else's skin as well. His throat was so dry that he felt like he couldn't even speak.

But they kept going. If they took a break, let themselves rest for just one moment, David wasn't sure that he'd be able to make himself start moving again. So they kept going, pushing through their exhaustion as they made their way through the sand.

When the sun finally started to set, Mari stopped walking and held up her hand. Everyone dropped to their knees almost immediately, including David. For a long time, he didn't move, enjoying the softness of the sand against his back. He was too tired to get his water bottle.

"We're going to set up camp," Mari announced, her voice hoarse. "Make sure to not drink too much of your water. You're going to need it later on."

It was hard not to down his water all at once, but he managed. The thought of not having any more after a few days like this was enough to give him some self-control, and he only drank half a quarter of it before collapsing to the ground again.

The night air was chilly, but David was too overheated to bother to get his sleeping bag. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, he was asleep.

»•«

He awoke to Mari shaking him with a smile that screamed sorry. "We've got to get going."

"Can't we wait for nightfall?" David asked, still half-asleep. "It'll be colder then."

"And dark," Mari replied. "I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on stepping on a rattlesnake."

David grumbled, but didn't reply. A few minutes later, he was on his feet, his backpack slung over his shoulders. Once everyone was ready, they started moving again.

To no one's surprise, the trek hadn't gotten any easier. The day went on just like the last one, in utter silence as everyone fought to find the strength to keep going. Vultures started circling them, though if it was because the predators naturally marked them as potential prey or because the gamemakers wanted to fuck with them, David couldn't say.

Then, to everyone's utter excitement, it appeared.

The town was behind a sand dune. It wasn't very big, and the buildings weren't impressive, but it was enough to make David whoop in delight, along with Matthew and Joven. He would've run to it if he had any energy, but he had to settle for a slow walk.

Up close, the buildings seemed to be made of some type of brick made of water and sand. There was no glass in the windows, and they didn't have doors, only openings in the walls. Some of them only had sheets for rooves, which fluttered faintly in the wind. When he glanced through the windows, he saw bare rooms with beds made of hay in the corners. It was exactly what you'd expect a poor desert town to look like.

What David wasn't expecting, however, were the people.

Despite the buildings looking fine, the people looked like they were in a war zone. Both the men and the women wore robes, while only a handful of them had turbans around their heads. If he had to guess, he would say that wearing a turban was a signifier of something, be it religious or wealth related. As they walked down the streets, people looked at them suspiciously through their windows. Mothers clutched their children close to their sides. These people obviously didn't like newcomers.

But that wasn't what was so surprising. Because it seemed like everywhere he looked, someone was dying. People were being carried away on makeshift stretchers into houses. Some were getting treated right on the street. Every once in a while, they'd pass a corpse with a bloody hole somewhere in its body, everyone else too busy with the injured to deal with the dead.

David had seen scenes of carnage like this is many games before, but here; here it was different. Every person, every corpse, looked real. Every detail of their faces and bodies was detailed and perfected, so much so that David found himself asking Mari if they were actually made of code, and not more players. They looked far too human, and seeing so many dead made him want to throw up.

They reached the middle of the town, which was marked by a well. By that point, men had begun to follow them, clutching spears and rocks and swords. They didn't seem to serve as an immediate threat, but it was enough to make David want to reach for his sword.

"What's the plan?" he heard Wes whisper to Mari.

"We wait," she replied, her voice far calmer then David would've been able to manage.

"Wait for what?" Matthew asked.

"For them to do something," Mari responded, her eyes darting around to size up the men before them.

There were a few solid minutes where nothing happened. None of the villagers moved, and none of them did. David spent most of that time looking at the buildings, and noticing the blood splatters on their walls. Some of them were far too old to be from what had just happened here. Whatever was going on in this village, it had been going on for a while.

David remembered the words of the objective. They were supposed to solve the town's 'problem,' whatever it was.

 _If this problem can cause this,_ David thought to himself,  _then I don't want to be here when it happens, let alone try and solve it._

But he had no choice. So he waited, and the men waited, and they all waited for the other side to make a move. The situation was so tense that David could almost feel it in the air.

Finally, one of the men stepped forwards, his robe stained with blood. He was rather attractive, with short black hair and a well-cut beard. His eyes were a beautiful deep brown. If this was a bar during David's college years, he might've asked that guy for his number. "Drop your weapons, foreigners!"

David glanced over at Mari. At some point, he'd established her as being in charge of the situation, and he was now looking to follow her lead. From the looks of it, everyone else had to. It was a hell of a lot easier than having to make a decision for yourself. It was always nice to have someone to blame if things went wrong.

Slowly, Mari pulled her knife out of its scabbard and threw it in front of her, before dropping her spear right beside it. Then, at the same pace, she got to her knees and put her hands on her head.

Everyone followed her lead. David got the point of trying to be as non-threatening as possible, but there was something terrifying about being unarmed in front of a mob of blood-stained men with weapons. Despite that uneasiness, however, he did what everyone else had, based solely on the fact that Mari and Joven had been here before, and Joven hadn't argued with her. She must know what she was doing.

As soon as everyone's hands were behind their heads, the man who stepped forward tilted his head, and a few of his companions rushed forward and grabbed their weapons. It was at that point that David remembered the knife in his bag, but he didn't dare to bring it out now.

"State why you are here!" the man yelled, clutching his sword.

"We would like to talk to your major," Mari replied softly.

"Why?" the man demanded.

"It has come to our attention that you are in need of help," Joven replied. "We are that help."

The man laughed. "You? You are the people the Gods sent to help us? There are only six of you, and only the silver-haired one, one with the brown hair, and the women look anywhere close to being strong! What could you possibly do?"

"Whatever we can," Mari replied. "We will either save you, or the six of us will die in place of six of your people. You have nothing to lose by accepting our help."

"Fine," the man nodded to the man on his left, who, now that David was focusing on him more, was not a man at all, but rather a woman with short hair. Upon closer inspection, around a quarter of the people before him were women. "Bring them to the major."

The group of villagers started to disband. As their guide walked up to them, she grinned.

"My parents always told me that foreigners were idiots, but I had no idea how right they were," she laughed. "Have fun walking into your graves."


	10. Chapter 10

The woman led them through the deserted streets, twirling Mari's spear between her fingers as she did. David was positive she was doing it to taunt them. All their other weapons were sitting right where they'd left them, in a heap in front of the well. Every few minutes, when the woman would glance back at them with an insufferable grin, David's hand would itch for the sword that wasn't there.

After far more time than David would've liked to spend with their infuriating guide, they arrived at what seemed to be their destination. The building was larger than most, and the green paint its walls were covered in wasn't chipping. The yellow roof was curved, almost like what you'd see on a Sikh temple, but slightly straighter, making it look unnatural. It seemed that the gamemakers had been trying their hardest to rip off other cultures without being called out on it. Everything was similar enough to make it recognizable, but the slight differences were enough that David couldn't tell you who these people were. He doubted that they had any real-life counterpoints at this point.

Their guide knocked sharply on the wall outside the door, this one covered with a curtain. A few seconds later, a man pulled the cloth aside to look at them. His robes and turban had golden thread weaved into it, obviously marking him as a leader. The difference between his getup and the woman's simple, worn robes was palpable

"Araba, who have you brought?" the man asked with a deep voice. There were dark bags under his soft brown eyes, making him look utterly exhausted.

David had begged the woman--Araba--as a commoner, and he didn't think he was wrong. The fact that this man, their obvious leader, knew her name was mind-boggling. There must be so little people left in this town that he knew everyone's names.

For a second, David imagined what it would be like to knock on the mayor of New York's door and have him answer him by name. The illusion was broken the second David realized he had no idea who his mayor was.

"Foreigners," she slammed the spear on the ground and blew some of her dark black hair out of her eyes. "Claim they came to help."

The man replied almost instantly. "Let them in." 

He retreated back inside, and Araba followed him with a distrustful glance at them. Mari followed them, stepping into the building the first chance she took. Everyone else did the same.

The room they found themselves standing in did not look like it belonged to a king, or a leader, or even anyone of wealth. One tapestry flew from the wall, displaying a simple stitching of a few hunters killing a lion. Long strands of beads hung above the windows, absolutely ineffective at keeping any light out. In the darkest corner of the room was a small bed, made only of blankets, hay, and a pillow. Finally, in the middle of a room, was a table with very short legs. Surrounding it were red cushions.

"That's Japanese," he heard Mari mutter. "Why did they put a Japanese table in a desert town?"

"To slight you, probably," Joven whispered back.

Even from his place a meter away, David could see Mari's fist clench.

"I am sorry that I do not have enough seats for all of you," the man smiled. "I am not used to having any visitors. Araba, close the door."

  
Even the way he spoke set him apart from Araba. His words were eloquent, and his voice had none of the harshness that Araba and the man outside's voices possessed. If David had to guess, this man had some religious role. He'd probably never seen a day of battle in his life.

Araba muttered a few curses under her breath, but she did as asked, pulling the curtains shut. Once the door was closed, the man kneeled on the one cushion on his side of the table. "Please, sit."  
  
David had been standing for long enough to jump on the opportunity. He and Matthew both rushed towards the cushion closest to them, but the taller man got to it first, making David sit on the floor. Mari shooting Matthew a distasteful look for sitting incorrectly and making him change it hastily was enough to make up for the loss, however.

"Araba, go get our guests some water. I am sure they are thirty and weary from their travels," the man demanded, seeing to be just as anxious to get rid of the scowling woman as David was. Once she was gone, the man spoke. "Who is your leader?"

After some quick eye contact, Mari replied. "I am."  
  
"I am Badú," the man smiled. "What is your name, traveller?"  
  
"Mari. Mari Takahashi," Mari replied.

"And where are you from?" Badú asked.

There was a brief pause. "America."

"America?" Badú frowned. "I have never heard of it."  
  
"Our people do not have much of a reputation, or any wealth," Mari lied. "We do not have much of a reputation, I am afraid."  
  
"We do not either," Badú stated with an easy smile that fit him well. David had a feeling that this man smiled a lot. "Where is America, exactly?"

"Very far away," Mari replied. "So far that you must travel through grasslands and mountains and deserts and caves and swamps and the ruins of once great cities and more to get to it. Sometimes, it feels like we'll never be able to go back, from how far away it is. Almost like it's unreachable. My companions are the only thing reminding me that it wasn't just a figment of my imagination sometimes, from how untouchable it seems."

  
Mari blinked, as if breaking out of a trance. "We have travelled a great distance."

"I am sure you have. We rarely have the fortune of hosting travellers. Less and less people are making the trek to Kaku every year," Badú sighed. "Our merchants have grown poor. But Araba told me that you are not traders. Why are you here? I can not imagine that it just from the kindness of your hearts."  
  
Everyone turned to look at Mari in the brief silence that followed. David had never been gladder not to be the leader. These people were programmed to be intelligent. If they told them the truth, they would be believed to be insane. Mari would have to choose her next words carefully.

"You... have something that we need," Mari said the words slowly, as if she was tasting them. "Something we need very much."  
  
"And what is this something?" Badú raised his eyebrow. There was no sign of concern on his face, though David was sure he found Mari's words at least somewhat alarming.

"We have heard that you have a totem," Mari replied. 

"A totem?" Badú narrowed his eyes slowly.

"Yes," Mari's voice hitched slightly.

"This totem, I assume," Badú reached down the front of his robes and pulled a necklace out, letting it rest on his chest. Hanging from the simple rope was a small, silver carving of a man. It was insanely intricate and detailed. The only part of it that wasn't made of metal was its eyes, which were made of startling emeralds.

"That's the one!" Mari smiled awkwardly, obviously glad that the man hadn't made her describe it to him beforehand.

"Why do you want this?" Badú narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Once again, David instinctively reached for the sword that wasn't there.

There were a few seconds of silence as Mari sat, her mind obviously pulling up blanks. With every moment that passed, Badú started to look at her with more and more distrust. 

Thinking fast, David piped up. "Legend has it that there's a temple somewhere in this desert, and that that totem is the only way to get inside. Our people are... dying. Of disease. Really bad disease."

"So bad," Matthew shuddered, adding to the act.

"Our priests say that there's an idol of our goddess of health in its tomb," David stated quickly. "They told us that bringing that idol back to our ch- temple to pray to was the only thing that could save us. We're here to save our people."

He shot a quick glance over at Mari once he was done, who gave him a nervous grin. She probably meant it to be reassuring, but all it accomplished was making David even more anxious.

"I do not mean to offend, but you do not look like the best group of warriors out there," Badú replied. "Why did your priests send you?"  
  
"We were the only adults who were well enough to make the journey," Joven added in. "It was a very long journey."

"Wes almost died of exhaustion on the way," Matthew grinned.

"And Matthew stumbled over his own feet and almost stumbled into a crevasse," Wes shot back. "He would've died if I hadn't grabbed him at the last second!"  
  
"Boys!" Mari scolded. "Forgive them. The long journey has made us all weary. They are not in their right minds."  
  
"All is forgiven," Badú smiled. "When Araba brought you in here, she said you offered to help. If you came here for the totem, why did you tell her that?"  
  
"We do not want to take the totem without repaying you for it," Mari replied, thinking fast. "It is obvious that your people in pain. We could not take from you without doing something to help."  
  
Despite the fact that the people she was talking about were merely lines of code, David could sense some truthfulness in her words.

"Which is good, as we would not have given it to you if we had gotten nothing in return anyway," Badú smiled again, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Do you know what is happening to my people?"

"No," Mari replied. "We've only seen the carnage."  
  
"Every night, men arise from the sand," Badú explained. "They seem to... chose people, ten each time, and kill them and only them. Those who try to stop them are pushed aside as if they weighed like paper. And then they punch their hands through their victim's stomachs with inhuman strength and dissolve back into the ground. Nothing we have tried can stop them. Blades, fire... they can withstand it all. How can you defeat the ground?"

"That's what we're planning on figuring out," Mari sighed.

Men made of sand? It sounded preposterous. But David had been in the game long enough by now to know that anything was possible.

There was the sound of the curtain being drawn back, and Araba appeared in the doorway, holding a jug of water on her head and a few cups under her arm. She set the cups on the table and filled them up, before sliding them to everyone and stepping back. Infuriatingly, she still had Mari's spear strapped to her back.

"Is there anything more you can tell us about these... sandmen?" Wes asked. "Psychical attributes, strengths, anything?"  
  
"There is a lot I can tell you," Badú sighed. "But I think it would be best if you saw them for yourselves."

He stood up and nodded at Araba. "We caught one a few nights ago. Warded it into a cellar. Without the sand at its feet, it can't dissolve and escape. Araba will take you to it."

Mari and Joven stood up at the same time, downing their water as they did. David drank his water on the ground before getting to his feet with the others.

Araba nodded at them before making her way to the door. As he watched her move, David only had one thought. Oh God, does she have to escort us again? Why couldn't it be someone else?

"Please, travellers," Badú stated as they started to leave. "Do not let it kill you. It would be a shame to lose you when I have barely even met you."

Mari nodded in acknowledgement, and David did too, though he'd barely spoken to the man. And with those words, they followed Araba back onto the streets, and towards what could be their doom.


	11. Chapter 11

Araba took them to the outskirts of the town, where a metal door was positioned in the ground. Several large rocks had been thrown onto it, as if people were worried it would fly off if they didn't weigh it down. David would've thought they were needed if it wasn't for the massive lock that bolted the door to its frame. He didn't see how anything could get past that.

The second they got close enough to see the numerous dents in the rusted metal, Araba stopped. She did a terrible job of masking the fear on her face. Whatever was down there terrified her. And from what Badú had described, she had every reason to be scared.

Mari marched up to her, the sand shaking with the force of her steps. "Give us the keys."

"I don't answer to foreigners demands," Araba tried to sound confident, and failed.

"Badú gave us permission to go inside," Mari reminded her. "Now give me the keys."

The two women stared at each other for a few seconds, but Araba relented and reached into her pocket to throw the keys at Mari, who caught them effortlessly. Before Mari walked back to the group, she yanked her spear out of Araba's hands and pushed her backwards. It seemed that Mari had found Araba's toying with the weapon as infuriating as David had.

She tossed the keys at Wes, who quickly knelt down to remove the lock. Once it was off, he threw it in the sand behind him.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Joven asked. "Are we just going to go in?"

"I don't see any better options," Mari replied as she threw her spear up and caught it. Behind her, Araba glared from the town's borders.

"Mari, you're the only one that's armed," Damien countered softly. That man didn't speak often, and hearing his voice was slightly jarring.

Once again, David had forgotten about the knife in his backpack. Somehow, he felt like whipping a weapon that he was supposed to have surrendered out right in front of Araba didn't seem like the best move, so he kept his mouth shut and didn't move a muscle.

"Badú said that blades did nothing to them," Mari argued. "Weapons won't matter."

"Then how are we supposed to beat it?" Matthew asked pointedly.

There was a brief pause as everyone thought about that very important question.

"Does anyone have any better ideas?" Mari finally asked. "I'm hearing a shit ton of complaints, but nothing that's actually helpful! Please, speak up! I'd be glad to hear them!"

Of course, no one said a word. The plan was stupid, but there was no other alternative. They had to see what they were going to be up against if they had any chance of beating it, and without knowing how to protect themselves, they'd have to go in unprepared. It was their only choice.

"Just what I thought," Mari muttered under her breath. "David, do you still have whatever you used to burn the tree?"

David's face burned. He hadn't thought about the lighter since he'd used it, and now, he realized just how stupid a decision leaving it in the tree was. "No."

"Then we better hope there's already a light source down there," Mari sighed.

"I have matches, Mari," Joven stated as he held up a box. "They always give me matches. You remembered about his lighter but you forgot about my matches?"

"You've never burned down a humongous tree, Joven," Mari rolled her eyes.

"If that's what it takes, I will!" he snapped back.

Mari buried her head in her hands and whispered a few words. David caught one of them; imbecile. "Okay, everyone take a match and strike it against the box. That'll be our only light, so hold onto it."

Everyone did as she asked. David had to admit, it was nice having a flame in his hands again. It helped calm down his nerves when he watched the fire dance.

David hated everything he didn't know how to beat. They had no idea how to kill the creature down there, and it was terrifying him. Everything could go wrong in a second, and they'd have no chance at preventing it. This could be the place where he died. Where he truly, actually died, and his eyes closed forever. He had accepted the reality of the situation what felt like ages ago, but the idea of him dying here was a concept that was still hard for him to wrap his head around. He assumed that it would be a lot more understandable very, very soon.

Killed by sand. What a way to go out that would be.

"Everyone ready?" Mari asked once everyone had a lit match in their hand. 

"As ready as I'll ever be," Wes sighed.

Mari nodded. "I'll go in first. On my count, open the door for me."

Ever the dutiful boyfriend, Wes dropped to his knee before the door and grabbed the handle. Mari started counting down from three. The moment she hit zero, Wes wrenched open the door, and she jumped inside. Wes hopped right back in after her.

There were no immediate screams, which was always a good sign. None of them wanting to risk the chance of the creature escaping, Damien ran in next at top speed, followed quickly by Joven and Matthew. Swallowing his nerves, David rushed into the room. The door slammed shut behind him, making an echo ring against the walls.

The light their matches provided barely gave them enough to see. The cellar was small and dark, and smelled overwhelmingly of mold. It had probably been used for food once, back when there was enough to store. Now, it sent shivers down David's spine. Even if he hadn't known there was a monster in here, this place would've unnerved him.

Speaking of that monster, it was nowhere to be seen. The six of them formed a tight circle in the center of the room, going shoulder to shoulder and using their light to watch their section of the room. None of them could see anything. As far as David could tell, they were the only ones there.

Had the monster escaped? That possibility seemed likely. It was made of sand, after all. How could you keep sand contained? Every grain of it was minuscule. If it wanted out, it could find a way out. The monster had probably gotten out the second it was put in here, and this had just been a massive waste of time.

David was just about to voice his opinion when he heard the sound of a soft scraping. Something had moved. And he was sure it wasn't a human.

Quickly, he glanced at his feet, at the corners of the room, everywhere, trying to spot something. But there was nothing there. What had calmed his nerves seconds earlier was now terrifying him. Where was it? Was that the creature, or something else? 

Then he noticed it. The small stream of sand, moving slowly across the ground, so slow that you could barely even see it. All of it going past his foot, and directly behind him. To the only place it wouldn't be spotted.

David quickly whirled around. In the middle of the circle they'd created, a figure was starting to form. Everything below its torso had already been constructed, and the sand it was collecting move up its body to collect and compact where it was needed. The legs weren't detailed, and from what David could see, the chest wouldn't be either. It only bothered to form what it needed.

He followed his first instinct after registering what was before him, and kicked it as hard as he could.

The dislocated sand flew into Wes and Mari's backs, making them whirl around. Now that it knew it had been spotted, the sand no longer bothered to be slow. It moved faster than David could process, the grains blurring in his vision. By the time everyone had figured out what was going on, it was fully formed.

The sandman had no features or clothes, and looked like what the result would be if someone had covered a man in thick clay and threw him in the desert. Its arms ended in stumps that dripped sand, which hit the ground with small clicking noises. Every law of psychics would day its existence was impossible, and yet there it stood. The unnaturalness of it was what made David's skin crawl the most.

For a few seconds, everyone just stood still, staring at it, unsure of what to do. Then, acting on impulse, Mari swung her spear into its shoulder, effectively cutting it straight down its torso. It didn't even react, and started to reform itself before the spear was even out of its body. It only took seconds for it to look like nothing had happened.

Faster than he could blink, the sandman lunged at Mari. She ducked out of the way just in time, and it hit the wall. It took far less time than David would have liked for it to recover and lunge at her again, starting an intense game of cat-and-mouse that no one knew how to stop.

That didn't stop Joven and Wes from jumping into action, trying to distract the sandman from Mari by punching it with their bare fists. Thankfully, it worked, and between the three of them, the monster didn't even notice David, Matthew, and Damien.

"Oh, shit," Matthew yelled. "What are we going to do?"

Even though he knew it would do no good, David pulled off his backpack and threw it on the ground. He zipped it open quickly and took out his hunting knife. Having a weapon in one hand and a match in the other was the only thing giving him the courage to not run for the door.

"I don't know!" David yelled back.

Suddenly, he heard a thump. The creature had slammed Mari into the wall. As soon as it let go of her, she crumbled to the ground, making both Wes and Joven scream.

For a few seconds, David stared at her unconscious body, panicking. That could've killed her. If it had, the game would reset. And David didn't want to go through this damn game without her. Not in the slightest.

"She's alive," Matthew breathed in relief after some time had passed. "Thank God, she's alive."

That didn't mean they were safe. The sandman was still going strong. And finally, it had noticed them.

It made a beeline straight for David, dissolving into sand just to form right in front of him. Instinctively, David ran through him and retreated to the other side of the room. Just like everything else they'd tried, the creature wasn't even bothered, and went after him again.

David didn't last nearly as long as Mari had. She was smaller and faster than him. Before he could duck away, the creature swiped his legs out from under him, and David crashed to the floor.

This is it, he thought as the creature raised its fist above him, and he thought of Badú's words of how they killed. I'm going to die.

Before he could raise his hands to defend himself, a droplet of water landed on his face, and the creature stopped. the yellow sand that made up its body started to turn grey, starting from its head and moving down its body. It seemed frozen in place. What had just happened?

David quickly got up, confused. Standing behind the sandman was Damien, holding David's now-empty water bottle.

"Water," Joven smiled as he flung his arm around Damien's shoulders. "Damien, you're a genius!"

Wes quickly rushed to Mari's side as David stood in shock. That would've been it. He had come so close to his final game over. If it wasn't for Damien, he would be dead.

"Thank you," he whispered. "You saved my life."

Damien didn't respond. Instead, he shot him a small smile. And somehow, that worldless response was enough.


	12. Chapter 12

Wes rushed to Mari's side and frantically checked her pulse, even though everyone knew she was alive anyway. 

"Matthew!" he called. "You're the doctor! Look at her!"  
  
"I'm not a doctor," Matthew mumbled, but he did as the taller man asked anyway. He felt the back of Mari's head before standing up. "There's no bump or swelling, so she'll be fine. She should be up by nightfall."

Wes breathed a sigh of relief and kissed her hand, before picking her up bridal-style. "Let's get out of this damn cellar."

"And leave that behind?" Joven asked, pointing at the immobilized sandman that everyone had momentarily forgotten about.

It was a good question. They couldn't just leave it here; who knows how long it would take to dry. David had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't just let them freeze it without getting revenge. And he had no doubt that that  _thing_  would find a way to escape. The only reason it had probably stayed down here in the first place was because the gamemakers wanted them to find it. Now that they had, who knew what could happen.

Without saying a word, Damien unscrewed David's water bottle and walked over to the creature. He started taking handfuls of wet sand and shovelling it in. Once it was full, he grabbed his own, poured out its contents, and crammed more in. Eventually, every last piece of the creature was encased in plastic.

"It'll be able to escape that," Matthew pointed out.

"Not if we pour it down the well," Damien replied, pursing his lips as he shoved the bottles in his bag. "Won't get dry if its always encompassed by water."  
  
"But then people would drink it," David pointed out. "It would find a way out."  
  
"We don't need to worry about that," Matthew argued. "Whatever happens to these people after we leave isn't a problem. As long as they think we saved them, we're good."  
  
"You are  _so_  lucky Mari isn't here to hear that," Joven replied.

"Speaking of Mari," Wes huffed. "Let's get her out of here. The last place she'd want to wake up in is this fucking cellar."  
  
"Lead the way," Matthew taunted, stepping aside to let Wes shove past him. There were no stairs leading up to the trapdoor, or even a rope, and it was too tall for anyone to pull themselves up. They'd have to get out the way they got in; by jumping.

Wes went first. Seeing as he was a huge mountain of muscle, he easily managed to jump up and grab onto the ledge with Mari slung over his shoulder. Once he was up, Joven took a running start. It took him two tries, and Damien one. After three attempts, Matthew got up, and after David failed five times, he took pity on him and pulled him to the ground.

"You get more fit the longer you're here," Matthew assured him. It didn't make the embarrassment any less biting.

Mari had been carefully laid on the sand, with Wes kneeling above her. Araba had come over to check if she was alive, and seemed unsatisfied with the answer to that question. Everyone else stood awkwardly.

"So, what's our plan?" Joven asked after Damien had effectively shooed Araba away. "We need to have one by nightfall. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not planning on being here for the carnage without being prepared."

"Well, we already know how to take them down," Matthew stated. "That's step one."  
  
There was a long silence as the four of them thought. Joven was right. From the way the sandman had reacted in the cellar, players were automatic targets. And David didn't want to face a horde of them empty-handed.

It seemed that you didn't need to cover them in water to immobilize them. An easiness only the first few levels would have, David assumed. It had only taken one water bottle to take one down, and it might be possible to use even less water. That made their weapon easily transported and usable.

And suddenly, David had a plan.

• • •

The sun had started to dip below the horizon a few minutes ago. Already, the village was in panic. People had started to barricade their doors with wood and cloth, as if that would do anything. But it was all they had. A few brave warriors armed themselves with swords, for in their eyes, if they were going to die, they were going to do it with a sword in their hands.

David and the rest of his group stuck out like a sore thumb, with how relaxed they were as they leaned against the well. Badú had supplied them all with glass jars, at least twenty each. David had his securely strapped to his waist with a leather belt, as did everyone else besides Damien, who had his massive leather bag wrapped around his left arm. Mari had awoken an hour ago, just in time to receive a rundown of the plan and get her water. They were ready to go.

Well, ready as they'd ever be, that is. David was nervous. Incredibly so. But he'd been nervous ever since he'd learned the truth about the game. All that changed was the intensity of it. He assumed that he'd be anxious about every single one of the plans they had to execute or battles they faced. It was something he'd just have to deal with.

Eventually, the sun finally set. If not for the torches that hung from the walls of homes and the fragile moonlight, it would be pitch black. With some final wishes of good luck to each other, they started heading down the streets. The last thing they wanted was to have to face all the sandmen at once, in own square. If they spread them out, it would be easier to take them down.

David went with Matthew. They went east, before stopping a few meters away from the town border. Matthew pulled out his first water bottle in preparation, and David did the same.

It didn't take long for the sandmen to show up. At night, they were even more chilling to look at. Two started to form in front of them, and with three blinks of David's eyes, they were done. With all the sand in the desert at their disposal, they were bigger. If it wasn't for the water in David's hand, he would've run as fast as he could in the opposite direction, just like the only warrior who had been on the street.

The two creatures started moving towards them, far quicker than the one in the cellar had been able to manage. David and Matthew jumped apart, trying to separate the two creatures. The plan worked. 

David had to admit; it was terrifying to face one of those things by himself. As Matthew ran in the opposite direction, David unscrewed his glass and held it ready, even if his nerves made his hand shake so much that some water would splash out every few seconds. When the creature pounced on him, the stubs on the end of its arms forming fingers to strangle him with, David threw the water at it.

Only half of the water flew out of the glass, but it was more than enough. The second a water droplet hit the creature, it started to spread. Before it even knew what was happening, it was frozen.

Thankfully, the volunteer warrior had come back in curiosity to see what was happening when David didn't scream. David made him stand next to the immobilized creature. Damien would be here soon to collect the sand and dump it in the well, and the warrior would make it easier for him to spot it.

Then David moved on, keeping the glass firmly in his hand. It didn't take long for him to find the next creature, who had been walking down the street as if it was trying to find someone. David got it in the back, and then it was over.

He got three more creatures without any trouble. By that point, he had run into Joven, who had set out on his own when Mari paired with Wes. The joy of being a third wheel. David knew that feeling all too well from all the times Sabrina had her boyfriend over for dinner. The fact that that man was smoking hot did not help matters much.

Fucking Sabrina. When David saw her again, he was going to hug her so hard her ribs would break. A larger part of him then he would have thought missed the crap out of her. Oh, what he would give to throw a cheeto at her right now...

For the next two creatures, he and Joven banded together, getting through them in a breeze. David had really gotten the hang of this by now, and he was pretty sure Joven had, too. They were getting through monsters easily, and David couldn't be happier about not having Damien's job.

But then the creatures started coming in faster, and in more quantity. It didn't take long to figure out what was going on. The sandmen knew that they were in danger, that the people were finally fighting back. And they were coming to eradicate the threat.

Now, David found himself fighting at least two at a time, having to dodge past their blows to get to them. His water supply was running dangerously low. As sandmen started tearing down the streets and forcing them back, he knew that Joven had the same idea he did. Together, they started running to the well as fast as they could.

Sohinki had the same idea, as he was already there when David and Joven showed up. Mari and Wes weren't far behind them. This was the complete opposite of what they'd wanted, but they had no choice. Without water, they'd be fucked. And in the desert, there was only one place they could get water from.

They refilled their glasses and bottles in random pairs while the others covered for them, only having enough time to fill up three at most at a time. Once, David accidentally dropped one in his haste to finish. Then they'd run in a circle around the well, letting water fly onto the advancing sandmen, until they ran out and repeated the process.

Within minutes, there was a wall of wet sand surrounding the well, which the creatures had to rip through to get to them. David was soaking wet by the time they were done. But, finally, they finished. The sandmen stopped coming. All of them were frozen.

Now that it was safe, Damien walked in with his bag, which seemed minuscule compared to the massive mound of wet sand in front of him. All it took was one glance at it before he was looking up at them. "You're all helping me."  
  
It took hours for them to dump all the sand down the well and clean their hands. The sun had fully risen before they were halfway done. Thankfully, the villagers started to help, and with them, it only took another hour to finish.

Once all the sand on the ground was completely dry, the six of them collapsed to catch their breaths. David was completely exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to curl up and take a nap.

But he hadn't gotten anything he wanted ever since he stepped into the game, and within minutes, Badú was walking up to him, the totem dangling from his hand. He placed it around Mari's neck, who gave him a grateful smile in return.

"Thank you, warriors, for saving my people," Badú told them, his eyes bright. "I hope you will be able to save yours as well."  
  
With how much relief was painted on Badú's face, David felt bad about lying to him about who they were. A part of him wanted to tell him the truth. But the other part of him, the logical part, new that that would literally be the dumbest idea he'd ever had. So, instead, he crawled over to everyone else to figure out what they'd do next.


	13. Chapter 13

It took them a few hours to find the energy to move. A large part of him was tempted to try and persuade the others to stay here for the night, from how exhausted he was. But Mari was determined to find the temple by nightfall, and whatever Mari wanted, Joven and Wes wanted too. Seeing how Damien was a pacifist and neither David or Matthew wanted to get in a fight right now, they got up and started getting ready to leave.

They filled up their water bottles and took some extra glass ones at Mari and Joven's insistence. Badú tried to give them some food when he gave them their weapons, but Mari refused on the grounds that he needed it more. Behind her back, however, David and Matthew pocketed some salted camel.

Then they were off, back into the desert with their jackets tied around their heads, looking like complete idiots. Wes had the totem held out in front of him. If anything about it changed, he was tasked with telling the rest of the group. The objective had told them to use the totem to find the temple. That _had_  to mean something.

Sure enough, after ten minutes of walking, the totem jerked out of Wes' hands suddenly and fell in the sand below. He had to stomp on it to stop it from moving away, giving Joven time to snatch it from the ground. 

The figure was floating in the air, pointing solidly to the south, tugging Joven slowly in its attempt to get there. Its emerald eyes were aglow.

"Well then," Matthew breathed. "South it is."

They followed the totem for two hours as they trekked through the desert. There was enough sand in David's shoes to make it feel like he wasn't wearing them at all, and there was a wicked burn on his arm. Somewhere along the way, Matthew walked head-first into a cactus, and ended up pulling pricks out of his skin for the rest of the journey. That provided their only entertainment, much to his dismay. Besides for that and the rattlesnake that lunged at Joven only to be met with Mari's spear, the walk was uneventful.

Finally, right as the sun started to set, turning the sky a brilliant orange, they arrived.

The temple was massive. It was in the shape of a pyramid, and looked to be as tall as a mountain. Instead of being made of stone, it was made of solid gold. Even from his spot a mile away, David could tell that there were carvings in its sides, all of them different colours. The only entrance he could see was in the shape of a mouth, with wickedly sharp teeth and no face. It was a breathtaking sight, and it left all of them enthralled for a few minutes. David was sure this game would never stop surprising him with its amazing architecture. The team who designed everything deserved to be millionaires, from how exceptional their work was.

That was the gamer in him, he assumed, still obsessing over graphics. He wondered if that part of him would ever go away.

"Let's set up camp," Mari suggested. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready to collapse."  
  
"Ditto," Joven replied.

"Ditto?" Mari raised her eyebrow.  
  
"Shut up." Joven huffed in response.

And with those words, they all laid down on the sand in their normal positions, completely drained from the past over-twenty-four hours. It took them little to no time at all to doze off.

• • •

David was the first to rise the next morning. He took a few sips of water as he waited, and took a few bites of his camel, which tasted strangely like chicken. Oh, what he'd give for some KFC right about now...

Once everyone else was awake and was fed and watered, they all head off to the pyramid. Mari decided that they should scope out the area before entering, and they went off in groups of two to check everything out. As David and Matthew circled the temple, they found nothing suspicious.

"What do you think the game designers designed this temple for?" Matthew asked as he trailed his fingers on the gold. "I mean, what purpose did they have in mind for it? Sacrifice? Burial? Ceremony?"  
  
"They designed it for our death," David shot out.

"Well, yeah, obviously," Matthew rolled his eyes, and that was the end of the conversation.

They met up with the others at the entrance stairs. No one had found anything worrying. After a few minutes of deliberation, Mari and Wes started climbing the stairs, with everyone else close behind them. Whatever was inside, they'd have to face once they found.

The entrance led into a large room, which could be described better as a cavern. Large green columns reached to the ceiling, all the way down to a silver and gold throne on the other side of the area. An embroidered carpet was spread over the entire distance there, and every column had a torch hanging from it. They couldn't even see the side walls, let alone the stairs or ladder or whatever they'd have to take to get to the top room of the pyramid.

Wes grabbed a torch off the wall and held it above him as a light source. Everyone else followed suite. Like always, the flames did a good job of calming David's nerves.

"Okay, here's my suggestion for a plan," Mari started. "Let's stick together and try to find the stairs."

"That's as good as we're going to get," Matthew replied.

"Then let's get started," Mari brandished the torch in front of her, and everyone started moving to the left, their weapons drawn. David had a sinking feeling that whatever was hiding in the darkness wouldn't take long to reveal itself.

Past the first row of columns was another row of columns. Then another, and another, and another. Each row was in worst shape than the last. The paint chipped, there were small parts missing, and there were large cracks in the stone. Eventually, they reached one that had a large blood splatter on it, that looked like it had been drying for years.

"Well, that's totally not terrifying," Matthew breathed. No one responded.

After what felt like hours of walking, they hit the far wall. David held up his torch to get a good look at it. On the wall, painted expertly, where murals.

They were in the ancient Egyptian style, probably copy and pasted from google and stylized to match the wall. There were farmers and pharaohs alike, their faces eternally etched into time. The farther down the wall you went, the richer and bigger the people got. Eventually, David reached a part where one painted person took up the entire height of the wall.

Then something on the bottom caught his eye. On the bottom of the wall, right above the ground, were some small murals. He had to crouch to see them. Once he got a good look, it wasn't hard to see what they were.

Every single scene was his experience with the game. From the barn to sleeping outside the pyramid, it was all there. David was transfixed as he crawled along the floor, taking the details of each picture in. It was absolutely crazy and chilling seeing it, but he couldn't pull himself away.

That is, until he heard the moaning, low and deep, like a zombie in Minecraft. He'd played that game so much as a teen that that was the first thing he identified the sound with.

He shot to his feet and whirled around. It was at that moment he realized he'd separated himself from the rest of the group. And this time, unlike in the tree, that decision instantly struck him as insanely stupid. A part of him even felt bad about it. He'd agreed to stick together, and now here he was.

"Guys!" he called out. Faintly, he heard Matthew's voice call his name back.

Without a second thought, David started sprinting in the direction of Matthew's voice. The moaning was starting to get louder with every step, which made his heart pound. He just caught sight of one of the other's light from their torch when he saw one.

It was a mummy. Its bandages were beige and rotting from age, and the skin that showed was grey and peeling. When it looked at him, its eyes were blood red and lifeless. 

That was more than enough to make David sprint to the others.

The mummies had found them too, by the time he arrived. Unfortunately, they weren't slow. Every few seconds, you'd hear one of their frail, dead bones crack under the weight as it tried to support the rest of the body, and see the mummy start to drag its useless leg behind them. Their arms were outstretched in a desperate attempt to get to them. Some of them held swords.

Thankfully, there was no secret catch to killing them. David's sword ripped through them like paper. The first one he came in contact with was easy to separate from the shoulder to the waist. But killing them wasn't the problem. It was the  _quantity_ of them, coming in from all sides of the darkness. Who knew how many hid in the room. Probably a thousand.

But they really had no choice but to stand in a circle and fight. They had no idea where the stairs were, or how to get to them. Without an escape, they had to stand their ground.

Soon, there were several corpses on the ground. But there were more than enough mummies to take the fallen's place. There was no way they could take them all on.

So David did the natural thing. He elbowed Matthew to make sure everyone saw him, and started to run along the wall. Once he was sure everyone was behind him, he picked up the pace.

He could only hope that the stairs were against the wall, and somewhere close. He didn't know how long he could keep this up for, and he didn't want to try and find out. Of course, he was aware that this plan was stupid from the get-go for this very reason, but it was the only one he had.

Then, mercifully, the stairs appeared, winding around a pole in the corner. David whooped in joy as he ran up it, Matthew only a few steps behind.

Running up the stairs was exhausting, but David's determination pushed him through it. He made it all the way up to the top floor without having to take a single break.

The top floor was small, lit only by the sunlight streaming through the glass above. David found himself wishing that they'd climbed the pyramid, even though that would've been far more exhausting and nearly impossible from how tall the gold bricks were.

In the center of the room was the statue. It was a larger replica of the totem, this one made of gold instead of silver. The eyes were still made of emerald.

David rushed over to it and held his hand to it. Matthew's palm hit it seconds afterward. Then Joven's, then Damien's, and then Mari's.

Wes appeared at the top of the stairs soon after, trying to fend off the swarm of mummies that had followed them up. Seeing them like that, in such concentrated numbers, was nerve-racking. It was a good thing Wes had ended up at the back; he was their best fighter. David wasn't sure if any of the others would've been able to fend off that many at once.

Eventually, Wes realized it was pointless and sprinted towards the statue as everyone cheered him on, the mummies hot on his heels. He reached it just in time to avoid being grabbed.

The second his hand hit the statue, everything seemed to still. All the mummies crumbled into dust. Before anyone had time to move, to react, David's vision faded to white.


	14. Chapter 14

David's vision hadn't even regained before he started to feel the water seeping into his shoes, and felt himself start to sink. Once the whiteness had finally diminished to nothing, he found himself standing in water. His legs were already soaked up to his knees, and he quickly stepped away to try and find solid ground.

They were in the middle of a swamp. Most of the ground consisted of soft mud covered with water. The only stable ground was at the bases of the numerous trees that covered the terrain, or the roots of the trees themselves. As soon as everyone had their senses back, they all rushed to the nearest tree to hop out of the water, having to fight through the weeds that already grew from the only sustainable soil that it grew out of.

"You're fucking kidding me!" Mari bellowed in an anger that David felt wasn't because her shoes were wet. "Here? This fucking early?"  
  
"Mari-" Wes tried to calm her, but she cut him off with a withering glare. The temper written on her face was the exact same as it was when she threatened to kill David all that time ago in the plains. Once again, David found it slightly terrifying, and was more than glad that her attention wasn't focused on him this time.

He shot a glance at Matthew, who only shrugged in response. Whatever was pissing her off, he was just as much in the dark about it as David was.

"Wait for the objective," Joven stated calmly. "We might not have to see him."  
  
"We've been here three fucking times, Joven!" Mari yelled in response. "We've  _never_  not had to see him."

As if on cue, the signature strong gust of wind of the objective blew through the swamp, making water splash onto their little perch of land to once again soak their feet. Wet feet was something he'd just have to get used to, it seemed.  "Third objective: go to him. He will tell you the rest of your objective."  
  
"You're fucking  _kidding me!"_  Mari threw her spear into the ground and kicked the tree trunk as hard as she could. The fact that she didn't hold her foot after that undoubtedly painful action took a lot more willpower than David thought he had. "They do this to spite me. You know they do!"  
  
"Mari!" Joven grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "I'm here too, you know!"  
  
"Oh, you love it!" she argued. "You love going to his stupid little excuse of a-"  
  
"You think I'm not angry at him either?" Joven hollered. "Do you honestly think I'm not? Are you that fucking blind?"  
  
The two stared at each other for a few seconds, before Mari started to break down into tears. Joven wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, resting his forehead on her head. The four others watched the interaction take place in awkward silence, David still very much confused. Who was this  _he?_

Finally, Mari wrenched herself out of Joven's arms and yanked her spear back into her hands. "Let's go."

She didn't wait for a response as she dropped into the water and started trudging forward, Joven hot on her heels, as if she'd stepped onto a sidewalk instead of a body of water. Despite the fact that David had a ton of questions he desperately wanted to ask her, he decided that being silent was probably his best course of action, and started to follow her.

That didn't stop him from making his way over to Wes and whispering as quietly as he could to the taller man. "Who's he?"  
  
"You'll find out soon enough," Wes huffed in response, probably not wanting to risk facing his girlfriend's wrath. David didn't blame him.

He spent most of the walk soundlessly by Matthew's side. It was not a pleasant journey. The water was thick and murky with dirt, and moving his feet through the mud took twice as much energy as a normal step would. Every once in a while, a weed would brush up against his leg, making him yelp on more than one occasion. It only took him a few minutes to decide that he fucking  _hated_  swamps.

Then, finally, they arrived at their destination. It was a medium-sized house, supported by large beams that stuck out of the water. Everything was made of wet wood, but then again, everything was wet here. Vines stuck out from the railings surrounding the base of the house and were attached to surrounding trees. Hanging from the vines were clothes and furs, which were drying in the weak sunlight. A few of those trees also had wooden platforms protruding from their trunks, which had small gardens on them. It was an impressive building, for a place like this.

One major architectural mistake, however, was the fact that there was no way into the building. No stairs, no ladder or rope. There was no way in.

"Hey, you bastard!" Mari boomed, her anger having not died down during the hour-long march to get here. "We're here! Let us in, motherfucker!"

If David had been the person in that house, he wouldn't have given her the time of day for talking to him like that. But the real homeowner was either a better person than he was or obligated to talk to them, because it took less than a moment for the door to swing open.

A man emerged from the doorway and leaned against the railing. He was decently attractive, with short brown hair and an even shorter beard to match, which he pulled off well. His eyes were a welcoming blue that shone with the playful grin painted on his lips. Besides from the dark bags under his eyes and few wrinkles that adjourned his face, he looked perfect. "Is that any way to greet a friend, Mari?"  
  
"We're not friends," Mari growled in response.

The grin on his face faltered. "We're still like that, huh? That's a shame. Not that I expected any different."  
  
" _We're_  always going to be like this," Mari snapped back. "Now let us into the goddamn house. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

"Well, since you asked so  _nicely,"_ the man replied sarcastically before pulling a lever on the side of the railing. A few seconds later, a ladder made of vines swung down, mere inches from David's face. "C'mon in."

Mari grabbed the ladder and shoved her spear down her shirt in order to climb. Joven went right behind her, then Wes, Damien, Matthew, and finally David. It only took him a minute to reach the top. For a ladder made of plants, it was surprisingly sturdy.

The best way to describe the inside of the house was _busy._  There was something everywhere. Large bookshelves held potions and food. Clothes and vines hung from the walls, as if waiting to be used. There was only one room in the entire building, and besides for the outer walls, the only thing keeping up the roof was a wooden column in the middle of the room. The windows had blankets of tightly-woven wines installed in them instead of glass, so the lighting was abysmal. The man had to light a lantern to lead them to the table in the corner, which had just enough chairs surrounding it for everyone. Everything looked handcrafted.

"Please, take a seat," the man gestured at the table. "I'll see what I have to eat. I'm sure you're all tired of salted beef by now."

Everything about the man; his face, his tone, his words; made David want to talk to him. But the hostility radiating off of Mari made him keep his lips shut, and he sat down in one of the chairs quietly. The way it creaked under his weight was not assured in the slightest.

David hadn't noticed it from afar, but the table wasn't blank. The entire surface was a brilliant painting. It was a bird-eyes view of the swamp, complete with the exact location of the house and the trees. The only other building seemed to be made of stone, far to the west. On top of the building were three small wooden chips, all of them different colours, that didn't move when Mari tried to flick them. They were all positioned over this house.

"Harvest isn't coming for a few more days, so this is all I have," the man said as he returned from one of his many DIY bookshelves, carrying some carrots and strawberries. "The only other food I have is potatoes, but they haven't been cooked yet, so..."

He didn't finish his sentence. A large part of David was desperate to pick up a carrot. He'd never been happier to see one in his life. But his fear of angering Mari kept him rooted in place.

The man seemed to sense his hesitation, and looked straight at him. "You can take one. They aren't poisoned."

Then his eyes narrowed. "I've never seen you before, have I?"

"We have not met, no," David blubbered like an idiot. He told himself it was because of the tenseness of the situation and totally  _not_  because he couldn't form coherent sentences around handsome men.

"I don't recognize you, either," the man said as he pointed at Matthew. "But the rest of you were here last time. I remember that clearly, though you lost the blonde and the other one with the ridiculous hat."

It was a small action, but David noticed Damien's hand clutch on the table.  
  
"So, who's the newest?" the man asked. "Orange-hair or brown-hair?"

"I'm the newest," David replied instantly. "Matthew was the one before me."

"Orange-hair it is, then," the man smiled. "Who are you?"

"David," David responded. "My name's David. Uh, nice to meet you."  
  
The man looked like he was about to respond, but Mati slammed her hand onto the table before he could. "Oh, cut the  _bullshit_ , Ian. Tell us the objective so we can leave."

"It's nice to meet you too, David," the man, Ian, held out his hand, which David shook, before turning to look at Mari. "I have to seize the chance to meet the guy, Mari. He might not be back next time."  
  
"There won't _be_ a next time," Mari snarled.

"Yes there will," Ian sighed. "There always is."  
  
"Tell us the objective, Ian," Joven said, almost pleadingly. For a man who had recently said he hated Ian just as much as Mari did, there wasn't a hint of bitterness in his eyes. 

"How much longer do I have?" Ian asked, dodging around the question in a completely obvious way.

"Four more playthroughs, after this," Mari replied, as though the words tasted sour in her mouth. "Now tell us the damn objective."  
  
"No," Ian replied simply.  
  
"No?" Mari repeated, with a small, joyless laugh. " _Excuse_  me?

"If I tell you the objective, you will leave," Ian stated calmly. "You don't want to spend any more nights then you have too out there. I still care about you, Mars."  
  
"I don't care about you," Mari growled. "And don't call me  _Mars_. You've lost that privilege."

"Oh, trust me, I know," Ian replied. "But that doesn't change the fact that I care about you, does it? You and Joven both. You're staying the night."  
  
"You're holding the information hostage?" Mari shook her head in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

"I am," Ian stood up and stretched. "I'll start a fire for those of you who want to dry out your clothes. Make yourselves at home. This is going to be the best sleep you'll get for a long time."

With those words, he walked over to a stone fireplace that had been surrounded by bookshelves filled with so many items that David hadn't even noticed it. Soon, a warm, amber light filled the room, and Ian was walking outside to do who knows what.

Mari slammed her head on the table. "You're fucking  _kidding_ me!"

David and Matthew shared a look before walking over to the fireplace, leaving the other four to talk amongst themselves. Neither of them had any personal vendetta against Ian, and spending the night in a house seemed like a dream come true to David. The fact that it was Ian's house made it even sweeter. Something about that man drew David to him. He found himself wanting to talk to him again. He wanted to figure out who Ian was.

But David had a feeling that he was never going to get a chance to properly communicate with Ian. Not with how desperately Mari wanted to get out of this house. So it seemed he'd just have to settle for sleeping in Ian's house, which, all things considered, wasn't too bad.

This level was off to a great start.


	15. Chapter 15

The sun was still rising when Mari shook David awake the next morning. Ian hadn't been lying; after so many nights sleeping outdoors, the floor of the house had felt like his bed. If it hadn't been fore Mari waking him up insanely early, he probably would've felt well-rested.

Everyone else seemed to have gotten the same treatment David did. He knew that Mari despised Ian, but this seemed a bit obsessive. What could he have possibly done to earn this intense hatred? 

Every part of Ian was a mystery. The way Mari and Joven talked about him made it sound like he was another player, another real person instead of a program like Araba and Badú. But if that were true, why was he here, in the middle of a swamp? Why wasn't he going through the levels with them?

So many questions, all of which David was sure he'd never get an answer to. He kept his mouth shut as Ian sluggishly got out of the only bed in the house to Mari's persistence and rubbed the sleep out of eyes, before yawning and stretching. David was pretty sure he was taking so long just to piss Mari off. If that was true, he was succeding.

"Let's eat breakfast, shall we?" he asked with a smile, looking right past Mari to the five people still struggling to get out of their sleeping bags.

A few minutes later, everyone was sitting at the table with potatoes and little wooden forks laid out in front of them, along with some glasses of water that Ian assured them was clean. That meal was probably the most awkward of David's life. No one said a single word, and Mari never once stopped glaring at Ian. David kept his eyes cast to the table the entire time, half-scared that she would turn her attention to him if he didn't.

Finally, everyone finished, and Joven spoke. "What's the objective, Ian?"  
  
Ian cleared his throat. "In the heart of the swamp, there is a witch. Cut out her heart and bury it under the tree to advance."

"Then we're done here," Mari stated, her chair screeching against the floor in her haste to stand up. "Thank you  _so_ much for your hospitality."

"Do you not want directions?" Ian raised his eyebrow.

There were a few seconds of silence, before Mari pulled her chair back in and sat down. Ian pointed to a spot on the map. It was the stone building from before. With everyone's attention on it, David inspected it closer. 

Calling it a building was an overstatement. From the looks of it, it was just a bunch of stone pillars collected in a circle, with a tree in the middle of it. It was surrounded by water, and was in the direct middle of the map.

"That's where you can find her," Ian explained. "And the tree is where you must bury her heart. Follow this lake," he traced one of the numerous blue lines, "westwards, and it will take you right to her."  
  
"And how do we kill her?" Mari demanded. "What's stopping us from getting her heart? Don't try to tell me there isn't a catch. There always is."

"I can't tell you that," Ian replied.

"Why not?" Mari inquired angrily.

"There are things I am forbidden from telling players," Ian closed his eyes and took a heavy breath. "I am only allowed to tell you what they let me tell you, Mari. You know that."

"And you can't break the rules just this once?" she asked cooly.

"Why would I?" he breathed. "So I can have you glare at me for a few more minutes?"  
  
"You said that you cared about me," she argued. "You help those you care about."  
  
"I am not going to risk my life for someone who hates me," Ian stated. "Is that not understandable?"

Mari didn't answer. Instead, she got to her feet with a huff and swiped her wooden glass to the ground, letting the water spill out. "We're leaving."  
  
"I know," Ian sighed. "I have some supplies-"  
  
"I'm not taking  _anything_ from you," Mari growled, cutting him off. "Everyone, pack up your shit."

Not wanting to feed the flames coursing through her, David did as she asked and walked over to his sleeping bag. He shoved it into his backpack and checked his water bottle. If it hadn't been full, he would've had Ian refill it. Somehow, that water he'd given them had been clean.

Just as everyone was ready to go, Ian walked up to him and lightly grabbed his arm. His touch made all the hairs on David's arm go up, even though his skin wasn't cold. "Try not to die, okay? I'd hate to never see you again."  
  
This was his chance. His chance to ask any of the questions that were bubbling up in his head. With Mari's back to him as she talked to Wes, he had an ample opportunity. All he had to do was ask.

"I'm not planning on dying anytime soon," he said instead, like an idiot. He wasn't scared of Ian in the slightest, but something about him being this close made David nervous.

"I sure hope not," Ian gave his arm a reassuring squeeze before walking away.

Before David had a chance to make a second chance at conversation, Mari turned to face them. "Let's go."

She didn't waste a second before she walked out the door, closely followed by Wes. David waved to Ian before following everyone else out. He didn't have a chance to see if Ian returned the gesture.

Getting down the ladder was just as easy as getting up, and within minutes, they had gone back to trudging through the water. This time around, David had had the sense to roll his pants up above his knees to stop them from getting soaked, and to shove his shoes into his backpack. Thankfully, at this time of day, the water was warm, and the mud felt surprisingly soothing on his skin. Matthew was the only other person who had those ideas, and everyone else just got wet.

As they all tried to match Mari's speed, David glanced back at Ian's house. The bearded man was leaning against the house's railings, his hair rustling in the slight wind as he watched them go. There was a mixture of emotions on his face, only one of which David could properly identify; sadness.

When Ian met his gaze, David quickly looked away. By the time he looked back, Ian was gone.

• • •

Once Ian's house was far out of sight, Mari called for a team meeting with a clap of her hands. They found a semi-large mound of stable dirt under a tree and climbed onto it, resting against the tree's trunk to catch their breaths. David pulled out his water bottle and took a small drink.

"That objective seems easy," Mari stated after a few minutes, taking a small break from drawing in the dirt with her finger to speak. "Too easy for level three."  
  
"Sounds easy enough to me," Matthew replied.

"After the last level? No," Mari shook her head. "It's too much of a change in difficulty. A witch? Something feels off."  
  
"And the simplicity of it," Wes pointed out. "They're telling us exactly what to do. They never do that."

"Maybe Ian told us more than he was supposed to?" David suggested.

The way Mari pursed her lips made him half regret bringing Ian up. "No. You heard him back there. He only ever tells us what he's allowed to. Says he'll be punished if he doesn't?"  
  
"And you don't believe him?" David asked.  
  
"Oh, I believe him," Mari scoffed. "I just think he's weak for it. For following their every instruction. I would take the punishment if I was him." She spit on the ground. "I wouldn't be in that damn house if I was him. He's a fucking coward."

"Mari," Joven consoled. "Let's not talk about him. He isn't worth it."

She didn't stop drawing in the dirt when she answered. "No. I suppose he isn't."  
  
"Well, what are we supposed to do about it then?" Matthew asked. "We don't know anything about the damned witch. Whatever catch there is, there's no way we'll be able to figure out what it is."  
  
"And who knows? Maybe there isn't a catch to actually killing her," Joven suggested. "It might just be  _really_  hard to get to her. She might have some kind of magical defences that are going to take hours to break."

"Yeah, so we won't know until we get there," Matthew smiled. "My point exactly. Thanks for backing me up, Joven."  
  
"I didn't..." Joven didn't bother to finish her sentence, instead opting to roll his eyes.

"We have to move forward, Mars," Wes piped in. "There's no other choice. It's our only option."  
  
"I know," Mari sighed. "But I have a bad feeling about this. Something tells me that there's danger."  
  
"There's always danger," Joven replied. "I could trip on a tree root and break my neck a minute from now."  
  
"Not like that," Mari shook her head, but there was a smile on her face as she did. "God only knows how you haven't done that already."  
  
"God knows how I'm still alive," Joven grinned. "Knowing me, I should've been dead a long time ago. It's a miracle I'm still breathing."  
  
"It's not a miracle," Mari joked as she stood up and lightly punched her shoulder. "It's me."

"Ah yes, my guardian angel," Joven smiled. "Thank you for watching over me."  
  
"I only do it to stop us from respawning," Mari taunted, though everyone knew that was far from the truth. In the same way that she and Wes were obviously in love, Mari and Joven were obviously best friends. It made David jealous sometimes, watching them interact. He'd never had a friend like that, and he doubted he ever would. 

That thought had never made him feel more alone. He'd always been alone, he supposed. Sabrina was the only person he could even come close to calling a friend back home. How could he have wasted his life like that?

"Well, I guess it's settled then. We'll wait to see what surprise will come to slap us in the face later. It's not like  _that's_  never failed before, right?" Mari announced with an eye roll.

"Oh, shut up, Debbie Downer," Wes joked, earning him a solid push to the chest that almost sent him tumbling into the water. Lucky for him, Mari didn't try again after her regained his footing, though David had no doubt that she wanted to. Maybe that was what true love was. Or maybe she just didn't want her boyfriend to smell like saltwater when she kissed him. Both options were equally likely.

A few minutes later, they were back in the water, kicking mud up as they walked. Mari, Joven, and Wes continued joking and bickering with each other in the front, while David and Matthew hung out soundlessly in the back. Damien was awkwardly in the middle of their little train, but he didn't seem to mind.

After they'd been walking for a few hours, David's foot hit something, sending him face first into the water. He quickly got up and spat as much water as he could out of his mouth, though he couldn't get rid of the disgusting taste it left on his tongue. It took him a few seconds to get all the mud off his hands, and he supposed he should be grateful for the fact that he hadn't gotten a face full of it.

 _So much for keeping my pants dry,_  he thought. Every inch of him was soaking wet, from his shirt to his hair. Sleeping tonight would be a royal pain. He could only hope that his supplies were waterproof. If his salted beed had gotten wet...

"Holy shit," Matthew whispered as he looked down at what David had tripped on. As soon as David got a look at it, he saw why.

Lying in the riverbed, almost perfectly preserved, was a corpse.


	16. Chapter 16

Everyone was frozen as they stared at the body. David took a few steps toward it and started to lift it with his foot. It had been in the mud for so long that it was stuck to the ground, and it took him a few solid kicks to flip it over. He almost considered using his hands, but it would've taken him far more failed tries to touch it.

The corpse was of a blond man. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets from how bloated they were, and most of his skin was covered in mold. His mouth was wide open, as if he had been screaming, and a tadpole swam out of it as he rose to the surface. In the middle of his chest was a large hole, most likely from a sword. All the blood from the wound had long since washed out.

Almost instantly, Damien dropped down to his knees next to the corpse, as if there was ground under him instead of water. He grabbed the corpse's shoulders and stared down at it, shaking slightly. A tear rolled down his cheek, and the expression on his face was a mixture of shock and intense sadness that was hard to look at.

Mari walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. Joven closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths as he turned away from the body, as if he was scared of looking at it. Wes just stared at the body, his face blank but for his eyes, which were full of sorrow.

David and Matthew shared a look of "what the fuck is happening," a question they'd both had far too many times during this game than David would have liked. They both stood awkwardly to the side. David felt like the other four were having a moment, and if he got to close, he'd be intruding on it. He was sure Matthew felt the same way.

"Damien," Mari finally said after a few minutes. By that point, so many tears were falling down his face that there was one landing in the water every second, sending out small ripples. "What do you want us to do?"  
  
"Leave," Damien croaked.

"We can help you," Wes took a step forward, "The wood here is too wet to burn, but we could help you dig-"  
  
"Leave us!" Damien screamed, before breaking down into ugly sobs. "Leave! Get out of my sight!"

Wes looked like he wanted to say more, but Mari grabbed his shoulder and started to drag him away before he could. She started briskly walking towards the biggest tree around, and everyone started following her, jumping on the opportunity to get as far away from the corpse as they could. David couldn't be out of there fast enough.

Once they were behind the tree and large bushes, and too far away to hear Damien's wails of anguish, Mari spoke. "No one leaves her until he comes back or I tell you that you can, okay?"

"Mari-" Wes began.

"I won't hear it," Mari replied sternly, cutting him off. "Let him do what he needs too."  
  
"He doesn't have any tools. It will take him the whole day. We can't afford that, Mari," Wes argued. "It's a waste of time."  
  
"I  _said_ that I won't hear it!" Mari pursed her lips. "If you say anything else on the matter, I'm going to bust your lip open. Now shut the fuck up."

With those words, she walked to the edge of the ground and took off her shoes and socks, before dipping her feet in the water. Seeing as those clothing articles were already soaked, David didn't really see the point in removing them. Maybe she just really wanted to step on some mud. 

Matthew sat against the tree and pulled out his knife, before grabbing a nearby rock and starting to sharpen it. Wes walked over to Mari and sat next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he did and kissing her on the cheek. Joven just took his bag off his back and dropped it on the ground with a sigh. David noticed some tears in his eyes.

"Hey, Joven," he started, his curiosity getting the best of him. "Who was that? The corpse, I mean."

Joven took a deep breath. "His name was Shayne."

"And what was he doing here?" David asked. "I mean, in this level. Right now. Mari said that one death reset the entire game. Wouldn't his corpse just... stay wherever he was killed?"

"Logically? Yeah," Joven tilted his head back and rubbed the tears out his eyes. "But not in this game."  
  
"Did he die in this swamp?" David asked. It would make some sense, he supposed, to keep a corpse in the spot it fell, even though it was a bit cruel. Well, more than a bit, but that was beside the point.  
  
"No," Joven replied. "He died in the savanna. Not here."

"Then why is his body here?" David proded. "That makes no sense."

"Doesn't it?" Joven responded bitterly. "They put him here to spite us. To remind us of what we lost. He's here to torture us, to shove our failure in our faces. Shayne's a favourite of theirs. They always use someone that would hurt one of us the most."  
  
It took David a few moments to realize what Joven meant. "Damien. He loved him, didn't he?"  
  
"More than anything," a small smile formed on Joven's lips. "They couldn't go two seconds without touching each other, those two. I can't remember a time when I saw them not holding hands. Or more, if the three of us were unlucky."

David chuckled once, and Joven's smile grew a bit before fading. "It's hard, not to fall in love here. And once you lose them, it's the hardest thing you can ever do to get over it. Sometimes I wonder if Damien ever will."  
  
Joven looked at his feet. "You have no idea how much he used to _talk._ We couldn't get him to shut up. He was always making some stupid joke, or riling Wes up, or laughing. He was the happiest person I'd ever met."  
  
"I find that hard to believe," David sighed. He couldn't even remember a time when he'd even seen Damien smile.

"You wouldn't, if you'd known him back then," Joven remarked wistfully. "But Shayne wasn't the  _only_  person who died in that savanna."  
  
There were a few minutes of awkward silence. David didn't know how to respond to that. Every word he thought of died on his tongue.

Eventually, Mari walked up to them, her shoes safely back on her feet. "Joven! We're going hunting."

"Do I get a say in that?" Joven raised his eyebrow.

"No," Mari replied. "We're not going to get nothing accomplished today. Get your shit, and follow me exactly. I don't want Damien seeing you."  
  
With a few half-hearted mumbles of resistance, Joven followed her out into the water. With nothing better to do, David sat next to Matthew against the tree. Matthew had his eyes closed, though David couldn't tell if he was asleep or trying to get to that point.

David tried to join him, but it was too light out for him to even feel drowsy when he closed his eyes. He spent the next half hour trying to entertain himself, but nothing worked. When Matthew started snoring, David got up and went to the only possible source of entertainment left; Wes.

He took off his shoes and sat next to the far taller man. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes as David mushed the mud below them with his toes. He had to admit, it wasn't unpleasant.

"What do you want?" Wes asked finally.

"Do I need to want anything?" David asked.  
  
"Yes," Wes replied with an eye roll. "You don't seriously suspect that I'd believe you just wanted to enjoy my company, do you?"  
  
"Maybe I do," David responded. 

Wes scoffed. "Yeah, sure."

David could understand Wes' suspicion, but the fact that he really did just want to talk to Wes (even if it was only because he was the only one left) made it hard for him to decide on what to say. How do you convince someone of something if they're already sure you're lying?

"I feel like you hate me," David stated finally.  
  
"Maybe I do," Wes taunted.   
  
"Oh, shut up," David rolled his eyes. "But seriously though. Do you?"  
  
"A little," Wes replied. "No point in lying to you about that."  
  
"Why?" David asked.

" _Why?_ " Wes grinned and shook his head. "Seriously? The first day I met you, you not only ignored everything we said, but you also made me risk my life for you. You burned down a tree without consulting any of us. You made Mari angry, which is not easy to do. And that's just to name a few."  
  
"That all happened a long time ago!" David protested.

"It all happened a week ago!" Wes argued back.  
  
"And what, you weren't an asshole when you arrived here?" David shouted. "That's why we're all here, isn't it? Because we were all assholes? Or, in your case,  _are?_ "

"In your case too, bud," Wes laughed. "Just because you admit you're an asshole doesn't make you a non-asshole, you know."  
  
"It means I'm less of an asshole then I was," David countered. "Past me did not admit to himself that he was an asshole."  
  
"A slightly-better asshole is still an asshole!" Wes argued, before rolling his eyes. "You know what, nevermind. This conversation is pointless."

He picked up a stone and threw it into the water. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do once you get out yet?" Wes asked randomly.  
  
"Is that what you've been thinking about?" David counter-asked.

"Just answer the question," Wes replied.

"I mean, I guess a little," David responded truthfully. "My roommate, Sabrina. I want to talk to her more."  
  
"That's it?" Wes raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't been here long enough to form an entire fantasy yet," David pointed out. "What about you, oh wise one? What's your great plan? It involves Mari, I'm sure."  
  
"Of course it does," Wes replied.

"So you've talked about it, then?" David asked. 

Wes sighed. "Not really, actually."  
  
"Really?" David tilted his head. "That seems like something you'd talk about."  
  
"I've thought about it, of course," Wes replied. "But Mari doesn't like talking about it."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"She's scared," Wes started to explain. "There was a guy, before me. Peter. She doesn't talk about him much, but I know that she really loved him. And I think that she talked about their future together a lot with him. And when she lost him, all those dreams crumbled before her eyes. Added even more to his death. Made it even worse to deal with. And she's terrified about losing me. I know she is."  
  
"So she doesn't want to make your death even more painful," David realized.

"Bingo," Wes threw another rock into the water. "But that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it. The second we get out of here, I'm going to propose. We'll move as far away from this place as possible. Preferably to another country. And then we're going to move into the best house money can buy and have as many kids as we want."  
  
"You really think you're going to get out of here?" David asked. He was already starting to have doubts himself. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be for Wes to still have hope, after how long he'd been in here.

"I don't  _think_ it," Wes replied. "I  _know_  it. Me and her both. I'm going to make sure of it."

• • •

By the time Damien returned, it was far past nightfall. David was the only one still awake, and he watched as a soaking wet Damien walked straight past the dinner they'd left out for him and pulled his sleeping bag out of his backpack. He soundlessly laid it on the ground and climbed into it.

When David fell asleep, Damien was still sobbing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update will be on November 30th.


	17. Chapter 17

David was the last one to wake up the next morning. By the time he was on his feet, the others had finished eating the remains of the beaver Mari and Joven had hunted yesterday, and were almost done packing up. Wes tossed him some salted beef, which David would have to eat as he walked to keep up with the rest of the group.

As he rolled up his now-dry pants to waddle through the water once more, David noticed something. The scar from the monkey-creature attack was completely gone, leaving his skin clearer than ever. 

Matthew noticed his line of vision. "Wounds heal when we move up a level. It's gone."

"I noticed that," David grumbled, even though he kind of appreciated Matthew telling him what was going on.

Then they were off again, their feet sinking into the mud as they walked. Damien kept to himself even more so than usual, and didn't stray from his spot a good six meters away from everyone else. No one spoke.

They hadn't been moving for long, thirty minutes at the most, when David noticed the first bat. It hung from a tree branch, watching them with its unnerving small, beady black eyes. It wasn't even a cute bat; in fact, it was the ugliest bat David had ever seen. It was big, with coarse fur, large talons, and strikingly sharp teeth that it bared when it noticed David looking at it. 

If it had been any other creature, David probably wouldn't have thought much of it other then to make sure he was keeping his distance. But a bat? In the middle of the day? Especially one as large and seemingly-deadly as that? It seemed like something to worry about.

"Uh, guys?" he announced as he stopped walking. "Should we be worried about that?"

Mari instantly stopped to look at it, and as usual, everyone followed her lead. There were a few seconds of silence as everyone got a good look at the animal.

"Well, that's creepy," Joven said, stating the obvious.

"That can't be normal bat behaviour," Mari put her hand protectively on the knife strapped to her side, as if it was on instinct. "They usually don't fuck with animals."

"It could be a glitch, couldn't it?" David asked. "It might supposed to be in a cave or something right now."

"We've never seen a glitch," Joven responded, moving his hand to his weapon as he did. "Besides, its eyes are open."

"Should we just kill it?" Matthew suggested. "Might have rabies or some shit. Better safe than sorry."

"If we have a volunteer," Joven shook his head. "I'm not going anywhere near that thing."

"I'll do it," Wes sighed as he pulled out his sword. "We've wasted enough time on this damn bat already."

The bat tilted its head as he took his first step forward. As Wes slowly moved closer and closer, something made David hold his breath. Everything about this felt completely, utterly off. Every instinct he had was telling him to turn and sprint in the opposite direction as quickly as possible, and David was pretty damn tempted to listen to them.

Right as Wes was about halfway there, the bat finally moved. Wes froze as it spread out its wings. It gave them a few flaps before hugging its sides again, not once closing its eyes. David let out a sigh of relief.

Then it opened its mouth and let out the most bloodcurdling shriek he'd ever heard.

Wes took a defensive step back as everyone covered their ears. The shriek never seemed to stop, and David felt the urge to drop to his knees to get away from it. He felt as if his ears were about to bleed.

Suddenly, a swarm of bats burst out of the trees. David didn't have a chance to count them before they started circling the group, which Wes had rejoined at some point. The shriek had stopped, and if it wasn't for the flurry of black bodies around him, David would've been relieved about it.

"Weapons!" Mari called, though no one really needed to be told.

After a minute or so, the swarm stopped and dived into the water. Then, right before his eyes, they started to change shape. Some of them stayed by themselves, while others joined with each other and melted together. Wings malformed into arms, bodies grew, hair shrunk into cloth, thin limbs into thick legs. Soon, there were at least twenty hooded figures crouching in the water, completely surrounding them.

They all got up in perfect cinque. Their hoods all perfectly concealed their faces, leaving their features masked in darkness. Every inch of their skin was covered in their long, grey robes.

The one right in front of him raised its head ever so slightly, just enough to let David see the light reflecting off its coal-black eyes. "Are you ready to die?"

"Excuse me?" Mari asked pointedly.

As a response, the figures all reached into their hoods and pulled out wickedly-sharp knives, with smooth steel blades and wooden handles. The ringleader tossed their's in the air before catching it. "Our mistress will enjoy eating your hearts."

Then, as if they shared a hivemind, they all charged, knives held high. David barely had enough time to process what was going on before he had to duck under the leader's arm as they tried to stab his eye. He felt the edge of the blade nick the top of his forehead, and a small trail of blood ran down his face soon after.

The leader seemed to be done with him, however, as she didn't bother to make another strike as she ran towards Mari. Two cronies took her place instead, brandishing their knives. David had no choice but to devote all his energy to fighting them.

He had to admit; fighting always looked easier in games. Keeping focused on both of them was incredibly challenging. He had to focus solely on the defence. Whenever he warded one off, the other would be right back on him, and then they'd repeat. He couldn't get in any real offensive attacks, from how concentrated he was on making sure he didn't end up with a knife in his gut.

Then, finally, he got a break. After knocking one down, he managed to deflect one of the second one's arms, leaving their ribcage open. Before the first one could get up, he drove his sword their heart. His opponent crumbled the second he pulled the blade out.

The first one let out a bloodcurdling scream and lept to their feet. They rushed at him immediately, but with only one to work with, it was a lot easier to fight them. Within minutes, he had his sword through their back, and blood was rushing out of their mouth.

With his opponents down, David turned to survey his group. Damien and Matthew were in the exact same position he had been in. Joven, Wes, and Mari had made a triangle, with their backs to the other two, while they fended off at least fifteen of the hooded figures. All of them seemed to be trying to get to Mari, and the other two were trying their hardest to make sure they didn't succeed.

Thinking fast, David rushed over to Matthew and slit open their back, right across the lower part of their spine. He gave Damien the same treatment, and then all three of them went to help the other's, who looked like they really needed it.

They'd gotten Joven on the ground, and David arrived just in time to kick an attacker in the head seconds before she stabbed him, before putting his sword through their neck. She dropped, and he helped Joven up.

With all six of them together, the figures didn't stand a chance. Five were dead before they realized David, Damien, and Matthew had even arrived. Whenever two tried to go at one person, someone would come to their rescue.

Finally, they'd narrowed it down to three; the leader, and two of her cronies. Sensing defeat, they backed up cautiously. David and the rest of the group watched them carefully, weapons raised.

With a growl, the leader pulled back their hood, finally revealing their face. The other two followed her lead. They were women; or, at least, they looked like women. They all had green skin, though the leader's was a deeper shade. Their hair was auburn red, and they all had their hair pulled back into a long braid that reached their waists. All of them had the same grimace on their lips.

The leader raised her arms soundlessly and closed her eyes, before starting to breathe heavily, as if she was focusing on something. David and Mari shared a worried glance. What was she doing? Should they do something about it?

Before anyone could make up their mind, her eyes shot open. And then the swamp started to move.

Water roared up, as high as David's head, and crashed into them. It sent them sprawling in different directions. For a few seconds, David was in the air. Then he smashed into a tree, with so much force he was surprised that he didn't hear at least one crack.

He barely had enough time to open his eyes before another wave came for him, sending him to the left and giving him a lungful of water. He landed in the mud, and barely had enough time to cough it all up before he was flying again.

It kept going on and on, giving him mere seconds before the next attack. By the time he finally got a chance to take a breath, he'd long since lost sight of the others. He used a tree to help him get to his feet, before desperately looking around. Nothing looked familiar.

"Mari!" he called out. "Matthew! Wes!"

There was no response. He'd have to go find them.

He stayed against the tree for a few seconds as he regained his breath. He had to go after them. Who knows what trouble they were in?

Just when he tried to leave, he found that he couldn't move his hand. He quickly looked over at it, and his eyes widened. The branches of the tree had wrapped around his wrist, keeping him securely in place.

Instantly, he reached for his sword to hack it off. But before he got a chance, the tree's roots wrapped around his arm and pulled him down, stretching him between the trunk and the ground painfully. He tried to wiggle out, but it was no use. He was stuck.

There was a shuffling in the bushes beside him, and the leader appeared. Her hood was ripped, but besides for that, she was unharmed. There was a playful glint in her eyes.

She walked over to him and cupped his face. David tried to jerk away, but her grip was surprisingly strong, and kept him in place. All his actions did was make her smile more.

"Mistress likes them handsome," she announced as she slid her knife out of her sleeve. "I was hoping to get the quiet one, but Alicika ran after him first. I suppose you'll have to do."

Before David could object, she drove her knife through his chest, right under his ribs.

He screamed as coursing-hot pain ran through him. The leader laughed as tears started to pool in his eyes. This was somehow worse than what the monkey creature had done to him, even though David hadn't thought that possible until now.

The leader raised her now-bloody knife to strike again, before stopping. Her smile dropped. With a heavy sigh, she pocketed her knife and stepped back, letting the plant let him go. David instantly hunched over and grabbed his wound, trying desperately to stop the blood.

"It seems Mistress wants to kill you herself," the leader sighed. "Try not to die. This death would be far quicker than whatever she has in store for you."

And then, faster than he could blink, she was gone.


	18. Chapter 18

For a few minutes, David didn't move. He didn't feel like he could. Every breath spent pain spiking through his veins, and his hands were stained red with blood. His blood.

He was dying. Holy shit he was dying. He was going to fucking die here.

More tears started flowing from his eyes as he realized that. Here. In this swamp. In this damn game. The one thing he'd tried to avoid, and it had happened. He was going to die covered in mud and water, completely alone, and no one was going to miss him. Sabrina would find a new roommate, his boss would find some other chump trying to pay off their students loans to stack the cans at the supermarket, and all of the gaming world will rejoice in the fact he was gone. He wondered how many views the "Lasercorn had disappeared! He's finally gone!" video would gain. Probably millions. And there wouldn't be a single dislike.

Well, that was impossible. All youtube videos had dislikes. But they wouldn't be because anyone would miss him, or even somewhat liked him. And then everyone would forget about him and he would disappear completely. The game would reset and after a few rounds, the others would probably forget about him too. Mari, Wes, Joven, Matthew, Damien, letting him out of their minds so they could focus on their own survival. Maybe they never cared about him in the first place. And when the gamemakers stopped his heart or however else they would kill him, his body would be carted off and discarded in a most-likely shallow grave, where he'd be dug up by wild animals within hours and have his corpse ripped apart and devoured. Like he was nothing. Worthless. And the cycle would start again.

How many other people had been in his shoes? Faced their death? Had the man before him, Flitz, had time to think over his demise? Or had his death been quick, his brain stilling within seconds? Would that have been better? David didn't know.

What had he done to deserve this? He got it. He was an asshole. He probably still was, truthfully, just to a smaller degree. But this? How was this an apt punishment?

He thought about the gamemakers. They were probably watching him right now, on their computers in their cubicles, laughing at him. How superior they must feel right now. Like he deserved this, and they had filled some sort of honourable duty by killing him. Maybe they'd go out for drinks afterward, to celebrate another successful playthrough, while one would stay behind to scour the gaming rooms for another victim.

"Fuck you!" he screamed. While he was sure it wouldn't insult them, it still felt good to say. "Fuck all of you! Fuck you right to hell!"

A part of him wanted to give up, right here, right now. It was tempting. He was already in so much pain, and moving would only heighten it. And, almost most importantly, he didn't want to give those bastards a show. A quiet death, spending however much time it would take to finish him lying in the mud, would be incredibly boring for any spectators.

But if he died, he was screwing over the others. They would be forced to start over again, to lose all the progress they'd made, and some new victim would be found to take his place. David couldn't let that happen. No matter how the rest of his group felt about him, a part of him that was far bigger than he expected cared about them. And he wasn't about to screw them over.

And David didn't want to die. Not in the slightest. He had so much life he wanted to live. He wanted to get married, to have a kid, to make sure he didn't waste thousands of dollars and four years of his life by going to college. He wasn't going to die here. He wouldn't let himself.

But what was he supposed to do? God only knew where the others were, and he was running out of time. He had nowhere to go.

Figure that out later, David, he scolded himself. Stop the bleeding first.

Unfortunately, Matthew had the medical kit, and was the only one who knew anything about health. David hadn't picked up any of his tricks. That only left him with one option; to wing it.

He took off his shirt and jacket, hissing in pain when he moved his left arm. It took him far longer than he cared to admit. Once they were finally off, he held them in front of him. What now?

In movies, they usually ripped shirts. David was aware that movies were usually glamourizations of reality, but it was all he had. There had to be some truth in it, right? He sure hoped so.

Quickly, he slung off his backpack and found his hunting knife, before starting to saw into his shirt. The jacket was waterproof, which meant that the blood would just slide off it, so he left it be. Once he had a strip from the bottom, he bunched up the rest and pressed it to his wound, before tying it to his chest with the strip and pulling the jacket back on and zipping it up.

Had he done something wrong? Almost certainly. But he couldn't feel any more blood sliding down his skin, so it had to be working in some form.

Now what? he asked himself. Finding the others was out of the question. They probably weren't together, and unless he had the luck of running into Matthew, they couldn't help him anyway. His makeshift gauze wouldn't keep him alive forever. Trying to find them would kill him. So what should he do?

The answer hit him like a bag of bricks. Ian.

If he could find Ian, then he could help him. With all the shit he had on those shelves, he must have something that could save him. And if Ian had been out on his own, he must have some sort of medical knowledge, or he would have died a long time ago.

Finding him, however, was going to be the problem. David had no goddamn idea where he was.

He leaned against the tree, trying to think about the directions he'd been thrown in. He'd definitely been thrown to the left predominately; he remembered that, which meant that he could probably head back in the same direction they'd gone to get to Ian. And if they'd been heading westward, then he'd have to back east to get back to Ian. Easy enough.

If he knew which way was east, that was. 

David sighed and leaned against the tree. What he'd give for a compass right now. Or a phone. Or anything, really, that had some sort of directions mechanism on it.

He unzipped his jacket and looked at his wound. Most of the shirt was dry, but he could see the blood peeking out on the sides. If he wanted to survive, he had to pick a direction; and he had to do it quickly.

What other ways were there to tell directions? There were no landmarks here to recognize, like mountains. He'd read somewhere that the whole moss-growing-on-the-north-side-of-trees thing was absolute bullshit, so that was out. So what else was there?

And then came the second realization of the day.

The sun. The motherfucking sun. It was past midday; it had already started to dip. And if the sun rose in the east and set in the west...

David shakily got to his feet, grimacing from the pain as he did. He tucked his jacket into his pants as he slowly waddled into the water; he couldn't let his wound get submerged. That would unclog and blood clots he'd formed and help his blood flow more freely.

Yesterday, Damien burying Shayne's body had been a burden, a waste of time. Today, it was a blessing. David didn't know if he could last the distance he was at now. If they had gone any farther, he would have no hope.

David lined himself up so the sun was right behind him, and he started walking.

Seconds seemed like minutes. Every step he took sent pain shooting up his body, but all he could do to tame it was gnaw his teeth, moan, or scream. He wished he could go faster, but moving at a minimal pace felt like too much already. He was stuck at the speed he was going.

It didn't take long for him to want to give up, to let himself fall into the water and stay there until he either drowned or lost too much blood. The only way to ward off those thoughts was to think of the people who needed him alive. Mari. Matthew. Damien. Joven. And Wes, he supposed, although he didn't think of him nearly as often as the others.

After walking for what felt like hours, he dropped to his knees. He instantly pressed his hand to his bundled-up shirt to try and keep the wound dry, which sent a newfound pain shooting through him. Thankfully, he managed to get back to his feet and kept going.

And then he fell again, and again, and again. With each fall, it took more effort to get back up, and took less time between dropping. Eventually, he got to the point where he couldn't get up anymore.

That was when the urge to give up felt the strongest. It took everything he had to force himself to put his hands on the mud. If he couldn't walk, he'd have to crawl.

As he moved, he left a trail of red behind him in the water. He tried not to look at it as he focused on keeping his head on the surface.

Then, just when he started worrying that he'd gone in the wrong direction, that he'd been thrown so far to the left that he should've gone west instead, it appeared. In the distance, he saw the wooden poles of Ian's house. If his throat wasn't so dry from his heavy breathing, he would've whooped in delight.

The sight gave him the strength to get back to his feet and start staggering forward. By now, the edges of his vision had gone black, and it was getting worse by the second. When he arrived at the base of the house, he was half-blind, and felt very lightheaded.

It occurred to him that Ian might not be home. That he might be out collecting mushrooms or some shit, or whatever else this almost-stranger did. If that was true, then David wasn't going to be able to stay conscious long enough for him to return. He'd drown.

Please be home, he begged. Then, gathering all the strength he had, he bellowed, "Ian!"

A few seconds passed. David's heart dropped. And then, thankfully, the door opened, and Ian walked out, looking exactly the same as the last time David had seen him. He leaned over the edge of his balcony and tilted his head. David got the message loud and clear.

Fuck yes! David had lost so much blood by this point that he could barely string that thought together. At some point, he had dropped to his knees. He couldn't even feel the coldness of the water anymore. He couldn't feel anything. "A little help please?"

The second the words left his mouth, Ian dropped the ladder, although there was no possible way David could climb it at this point. When David didn't grab the vines, Ian started to climb down himself, at a speed far faster than un-stabbed David would've been able to manage.

He dropped into the water next to David and grabbed his shoulders, before looking straight into his eyes. There was a worried look on his face, which David found oddly touching. "Daniel?"

"My name's David!" David managed to yell, barely having enough time to feel offended before he collapsed into Ian's arms.


	19. Chapter 19

David awoke before his sight did. It took a few seconds of furious blinking to get the blackness out of his vision, which was enough to wake him up completely.

He quickly sat up, and screamed. The fast motion had strained his wound, making a familiar pain run through him. Instinctively, his hand shot to his side, expecting to find his makeshift shirt-gauze. Instead, his fingers brushed against  _real_ gauze; or, at least, what  _seemed_  like real gauze. The type Matthew had used had been far softer.

"Well, look who decided to wake up," David's head snapped towards the sound. Ian was sitting on one of the chairs surrounding the table, peeling potatoes. The skins fell into a bucket at his feet. "Took you long enough."  
  
"How long was I out for?" David reached to rub his head, but the resulting pain was enough to make him lower his arm.

"Three days," Ian replied simply.

David blanched, "Three days?" 

"Mhm," Ian didn't even bother to look up from his potatoes this time. "You're lucky. I thought it would take you a week at least, from how much blood you'd lost. It's a miracle you're even still alive."  
  
He sighed, "The gamemakers must be fucking with us. This is level three, yes?"  
  
"Yes."

"That explains it then," Ian finished skinning his last potato and stood up. "Well, David, welcome back."

"Uh, good to be here?" David replied awkwardly. Everything about this entire situation was awkward. He was lying in a pretty much stranger's bed with his shirt off, while said stranger peeled vegetables. It did  _not_  help that the stranger was hot. 

"That's debatable," Ian kicked the bucket under the table and stood up to stretch. " _Here_ isn't a good place to be."

"Better than being dead," David argued.

Ian smiled sadly. " _That's_ debatable."  
  
There were a few seconds of awkward silence. It took all of David's willpower to stop himself from cringing, just from the situation alone.

"Well, it's just your luck that I planned ahead," Ian announced as he walked over to one of his many shelves. "I've dealt with my own wounds before. None as serious as yours, but I believe I know how to heal you."  
  
"You _believe_  you know?" David asked pointedly. "You aren't  _sure?_ "

"Well, you're not dead, are you?" Ian raised his eyebrow as he grabbed a vial. "That means I must be doing something right."  
  
"Or that you just got lucky," David huffed.

"Still meant I was doing something right," Ian joked as he dragged one of the chairs over to David's bed, which David had quickly noticed was the only one here. There was a sleeping bag identical to his own laid out on the floor, where Ian must have been sleeping. 

Ian sat down and held the vial out to David. "Drink this."  
  
"What is it?" David asked, not taking it. He'd be damned if he was about to drink something he didn't even know the contents of. Especially if the person who made it lived in a  _swamp._ Who knows what kind of things were in there.

"It'll help you," Ian replied, which didn't answer David's question in the slightest.

"Help me with what?"  
  
"Pain, mostly," Ian explained. "Should help you heal too, but I don't know if that part will work. Not exactly something you can measure."  
  
"That is  _totally_ something you can measure."  
  
"Not if you live in the wilderness."  
  
"I'm sure there's some way to-"  
  
"Just drink the damn thing already," Ian sighed, cutting David off. "Unless you want your breathing to hurt."

"I barely even know you!" David argued. "You might be trying to kill me for all I know!"  
  
"If I wanted you dead, I would've let you pass out at the bottom of the ladder and drowned," Ian pointed out. "I wouldn't have wasted my limited medical supplies on you if my end goal was to kill you with a damn drink. Now drink it before I _force_ you too."  
  
"And how exactly-"  
  
Ian lightly hit him on the head with his non-vial holding hand. "Rule number one of my house; no being an asshole. You have ten seconds to drink it before I pick you up and chuck you off my balcony. Now drink it!"  
  
"Fine!" David exclaimed as he grabbed the vial and uncorked it, before chugging it all down without taking a breath. He instantly doubled over and start coughing. That was, without a doubt, the worst thing he'd ever tasted in his life. If he had bitten into Shayne's corpse, it probably would've left the same aftertaste in his mouth as that liquid had.

"There we go," Ian smiled as he snatched the empty glass from David's hand and pocketed it. "Now, are you hungry? Harvest was yesterday, so you can have whatever you like. If you like vegetables, that is. My strawberry bush didn't make it through the winter."  
  
Eating was the _last_ thing David wanted to do. Combine the still-lingering taste of the drink with his already poor physical condition, and David was sure he wouldn't be able to keep anything down. "No."  
  
Ian shrugged. "More for me then."  
  
He reached onto a shelf and pulled out a bowl of carrots, which he chucked onto the table. Then, to David's shock, he reached under the table and pulled out  _another_ basket of potatoes.

"How many potatoes do you have?" he exclaimed.

"Far too many," Ian replied. "Potatoes are the one crop that never fails. No matter how bad the harvest is, they're always there. It's probably the gamemakers fucking with me, but it's better they do that than give me nothing. Half my garden is fucking potatoes. I used to love them."  
  
"Used to?" 

"What's your favourite food?"  
  
"Pizza."

"Okay, David, imagine this," Ian took his peeling knife and brandished it non-threateningly at David. "You have no choice but to eat pizza every day. No exceptions. Same flavour every time, too, so there's no variety. And you have to do this for years. Would you still love pizza? Or would you do anything to eat something else?"  
  
"Ok, I get where you're going with this," David replied. "But you  _have_  other crops. You don't  _need_  to eat potatoes."

"You think every harvest is successful?" Ian asked.

"Of course not."  
  
"I've already told you that potatoes are the only things that survive a bad harvest. And so, I'm eating potatoes every day for months on end," Ian smiled playfully. "It's not complicated."  
  
"You're breaking the first rule in your house," David found himself smiling back.

Ian laughed, which made David laugh too. And then he was clutching his side because the laughing hurt, which Ian noticed, and then it was silent.

His host kicked the potato basket back under the table and stood up. "I'm going to go check on the animals. For your own sake, don't get out of the bed. It'll make it far easier for your blood to flow straight out of you. The fact that you're awake doesn't mean that you're healed."  
  
"I  _know_ that."  
  
"Good," Ian pulled on a coat. "See you soon then."

Ian didn't wait for a response before he showed himself out the door, leaving David alone.

For fifteen minutes, David actually listened to Ian's advice. He lied back down and pulled the blanket over his shoulders, trying to keep out the swamp's biting cold. As he did, he noticed that his skin was a few shades paler than before, which sent a shiver down his spine. Had he really lost that much blood?  
  
Ian was right. It  _was_  a miracle that he was still alive.

But then he got bored. Then he started scanning Ian's shelves for fun, trying desperately to entertain himself. But all the items were small, and he found himself unable to make out their details. And that made him tempted to go study what they really were.

Really, it was Ian's fault. It took far less than fifteen minutes to check on animals. If he wanted David to stay in bed, he should've tried harder.

The drink Ian had given him actually  _did_ help with the pain, as David barely felt anything when he sat up and got out of the bed. After days of unuse, his legs wobbled under his weight, and he had to grab a shelf for support. He got over that quickly, however, and then he was off.

Ian's shelf contents were far weirder than David had assumed. He had everything he possibly could in this terrain. There was jarred food, vines, makeshift tools and weapons, cloth, wool, water, you name it. Everything seemed to be organized neatly, as they came in groups.

Then he hit the far shelf, and things got stranger. Ian had canned animal parts, like the stuff you'd find in movies. _Eyes of the salamander_  and all that shit. He had it all, and a thick book to go with it.

David grabbed the book and forced it open. He figured out pretty quickly that it was a potions book. Every page had a different concoction on it, and detailed what they did and how to make them. There seemed to be hundreds of them.

Was Ian a witch? The thought seemed absurd, but David supposed that he could be. He was in a swamp, after all. And David didn't know what Ian was, exactly. Mari and Joven had talked to and about him as if he was a player, but David had never gotten any confirmation on that.

Had he just walked into a death trap?  
  
Just as he was about to put the book away, the door creaked open, and David almost jumped into the wall. Before he regained his wits, Ian walked in and saw everything.

"Ah," Ian grimaced. "I see you've found my book."  
  
"Uh, yeah," David managed to say, as he was starting to feel lightheaded. "What is this?"  
  
"A gift from the gamemakers," Ian responded as he took the book from David's hand and put it back in its place. "That and all the rest of the supplies. I try not to use it unless I absolutely have to."  
  
"And when do you absolutely have to?" David asked, raising his eyebrow.

"How do you think you're still alive?" Ian sighed. "I tried not to use any of it at first, but you had lost too much blood. I had to use a healing potion."

"And the drink you gave me earlier?" David asked.

"That was natural," Ian assured him. "Well, at least as natural as you can get in this game. But it's not going to keep you conscious."  
  
"What?" David muttered.

"I told you to stay in the bed for a reason," Ian smiled. Before David could argue, he collapsed.

• • •

He woke up the exact same way as he had earlier, to almost the exact same sight. Instead of potatoes, Ian had David's ripped-up shirt in one hand and a needle with string in the other. On the table next to him was a pile of cloth, which Ian was probably using to replace missing parts of the fabric and to make up for the ones that were too blood soaked to save.  
  
"Well, well, well, look who decided to wake up," Ian teased as he pulled the needle through the fabric.

"Shut up," David groaned. "How long was I out for?"  
  
"Less than three hours," Ian replied. "I enjoyed the quiet."  
  
David rolled his eyes and shook his head, though he found that he was smiling. A few seconds later, he noticed that Ian had pre-prepared another vial for him and put it on the ground next to the bed, in case he felt too much pain and needed a break. David found the gesture comforting.

He was going to be stuck here for a while; there was no doubt about that. And if he was trapped in this house, it was a good thing that its owner cared about him, even if he didn't care too much.

"Oh, I just remembered something!" Ian's head shot up. "David!"  
  
"Yes?" David asked.

"If you get out of bed before I tell you that you can again," Ian explained, smiling. "I'm going to tie you to it."

He laughed and went back to peeling his potatoes. And, as if it was infectious, David found himself laughing too.


	20. Chapter 20

Needless to say, David didn't get out of bed again. Instead, he opted for annoying the shit out of Ian from exactly where he was.

"Have you heard any news from the others?" he asked during his second day there. He was desperate to see the others. They couldn't advance without him. For all he knew, they were waiting for him somewhere, knowing that he wasn't dead but not knowing where to begin to look for him. That thought made him feel sick to his stomach.

By that point, David was fell enough to eat, and the two of them were eating lunch. The menu was, you guessed it, potatoes. And when they were eating, Ian was trapped. His host had no choice but to talk to him, which David was taking full advantage of.

Ian looked over at the table. Last time David had come here, all the painted chips had been over this house. Now, only two were. The other four were scattered along the table, as though someone had half-heartedly dropped them onto the painted surface.

"I don't see how I could have  _heard_  anything from them," Ian explained. "But they're scattered around the map. It'll take them a while to find each other."  
  
"How do you know that if you haven't heard anything?" David asked.

"These chips," Ian flicked one, even though it didn't budge. "Represent every player on this level. The two over the house are you and me, the rest are the others."  
  
"So you're a player then?" David inquired.

Ian tilted his head. "What did you  _think_  I was?"

"I don't know!" David responded. "It's just, you know, I thought players were part of the group. Had to stick together and all that jazz. And you're... not with the group."  
  
"No," Ian responded. "I'm not."  
  
There were a few seconds of silence.

"Are you going to, I don't know,  _expand_  on that?" David prompted.

Ian sighed. "No."

"Why not?" David complained.

"David, you've only been here for two days," Ian pointed out. "I'm not going to give you my life story."  
  
"That's not what I'm asking for," David crossed his arms. "And besides; we're friends."  
  
"Are we?" Ian raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember that being established."

"You don't  _establish_  friendships," David scoffed. "There isn't a contract you have to sign. They just _happen_."

"It's established when you call each other friends."  
  
"I  _am_  calling you a friend."  
  
"I'm not."

David gasped. "You're breaking rule number one!"  
  
"This is my house," Ian argued. "I get to make the rules."  
  
"You  _made_  rule number one!"

Ian laughed. "Yeah. I suppose I did."

They finished the rest of their meal in silence.

• • •

The next day, when Ian was changing David's bandages, he delivered what could quite possibly be the best news in David's life. "You should be able to get out of bed now."  
  
 _I'm free!_  
  
"This isn't a trick, is it?" David joked. "A way to justify tying me down."  
  
"I wouldn't need to trick you in order to do that," Ian joked back. David caught his eye, noticed that Ian's hand was still on his waist, and blushed.

Ian finished with the gauze and stood up. David followed him over to the table, where Ian had his finished shirt waiting for him. The finished product was far from pretty, but it would serve its purpose well enough. It wasn't like David had ever cared about what he looked like in the first place.

"I would force you to start working with me, if you weren't so damn weak," Ian sighed as he sat down across from David, placing a plate of potatoes in front of both of them for breakfast. As Ian had explained, you go through the potatoes first, to leave the better things for last. It had only been five meals so far, and David was already sick of the spuds. He didn't know how Ian had stopped himself from burning all the potato crops a long time ago.

"How much work do you even have?" David asked. "You live in a swamp."  
  
"I have farms, with both crops and animals, that hang precariously off trees to keep them safe from flooding," Ian explained, as if that should be obvious. "Even when all of my farming work is done, there's always something that needs to be done. Clothes that need to be made, supports that need to be fixed, and so on. There's always something that needs to be done. I'm not allowed to cheat at work."  
  
"You're not allowed to what?" had he heard him correctly? Had Ian just said  _cheat?_

"Shit," Ian closed his eyes. "Did _not_ think that through before I said it."

"What do you mean, cheat?" David asked. "What does that mean."  
  
"You're going to keep pestering me until I tell you, aren't you?"  
  
"Of  _course_  I'm going to!"

Ian shook his head, though the faint smile on the corners of his lips didn't escape David's notice. "Fine. Don't move."  
  
"Where the fuck would I have gone?"

Ian didn't respond as he kneeled on the floor and grabbed a wooden plank, heaving it straight from the floor. He reached into the hole and pulled something out, before setting it in front of David.

The object looked identical to an iPad, if you took away all of the company's logos and made it more square. When Ian turned it on, David noticed that the bar on the top was blank; no battery percentage or time. All the screen showed was lines of code and a keyboard.

It took approximately one second for David to realize what it was for.  
  
"You can hack the game?" he asked in delight. "Holy shit!"  
  
If Ian could hack the game, he could get them out of here. All of them! David could be home by tonight if Ian really put his mind to it! This changed everything!

"Not... exactly," Ian replied slowly.

His tone made David's spirt drop. "What do you mean."  
  
"I only hack what the gamemakers let me hack," Ian explained. "I know the code to break the game, or, at least, I'm close to it. But it doesn't work. They gave me this, and they control it. Whenever I try to do something they don't like, it doesn't work, and I get the punishment fee anyway."  
  
"Punishment fee?" David asked.

Ian nodded. "Punishment fees, price scars, whatever I feel like calling them at the moment. Whenever I use this damn thing, I get hurt. Small things result in small cuts, big changes make me pass out from blood loss."  
  
He took off his shirt, which was totally not distracting in the slightest, and started to point to scars that peppered his skin. There were a lot of them, most of which he didn't bother giving an explanation for. 

Only three were of any real significance. The smallest was from making the table, seeing as Ian not only made the wood chip system but also didn't paint it. The second one was from running out of food after his first bad harvest, when he didn't plant enough spuds, and had to program them into existence. And the last was from, as Ian simply put it, teleporting.

"That doesn't seem like that big of a deal," David tilted his head. The last scar was wickedly long, starting from the bottom of Ian's left rib and running diagonally across his chest to his waist. "How is teleporting worse than the table?"  
  
"I don't know, to be honest," Ian replied as he put his shirt back on, which totally didn't make David disappointed. "They're probably trying to ward me off from doing something. Or trying to make sure that I think twice before doing it, just to make it more of a show."  
  
"Why would they care if you put on a show?" David asked.

Ian blinked at him for a few seconds, before shaking his head. "You're the only person I've talked to for more than a day in forever. I've forgotten that I'm the only one who's figured it out."  
  
"Figured what out?" David was really curious now.  
  
"Do you remember the website?" Ian asked. "Smosh Games? I'm sure they haven't changed it after all this time. It's not like they sell any products. You must have gone to it when you got the email."  
  
"Of course I did," David replied, leaning back to see where Ian was going with this.

"Being here has given me a lot of time to think," Ian explained. "To look back at my life and examine all of the choices I've made. It's quite depressing, really. So I thought about the website, and the tabs. About Us. Shop. And  _Streaming._ "

"And?" David proded.

" _And_  what the hell was Streaming?" Ian exclaimed. "Why was that an option? Why was it there? What purpose did it serve?"  
  
"Does it matter?" David asked.

Ian scoffed. "Of course it matters! Okay, David, answer this. Why do you think they made this game?"  
  
"To punish asshole gamers?" David suggested. "That's always been the impression I've got."

"Oh, I'm sure that's how they justify it to themselves morally," Ian scoffed. "But they made this game for the same reason  _any_  company makes a game. To make  _money_."

"How are they making any money off of this?" David shook his head. "All their players are trapped in it! I'm not exactly paying for any DLC's or anything."  
  
"Exactly!" Ian pointed at him. "This game isn't making them any money from a commercial standpoint. But they need money to keep operating it. So what do they do? They  _stream_ it."

"What?"  
  
"People love watching people play video games," Ian explained. "They have for ages. And what's more exciting than watching real people play a game, when they're the players? There's a reason why they gave me this screen, and why the potatoes never fail, and why they fuck around with wounds and potions and psychics and all that shit. This is a show, David. And we're the actors."  
  
For a few seconds, David didn't believe it. He didn't want to. But it made too much sense to be false. "People are watching us?"  
  
"I'd bet my life on it," Ian leaned back in his chair. "There's probably a betting pool open on when you'll die."

"That's disgusting!" David shot to his feet. "That's absolutely disgusting! They couldn't get away with that! It's ten levels of illegal!"  
  
"Did you read them?" Ian asked.

"Read what?"  
  
"The contracts," Ian grimaced. "The contracts that blonde-haired bitch set in front of us and told us to sign. Did you read them?"  
  
"No," David shook his head. "She told me what was in them."  
  
"Oh, she was good, wasn't she?" Ian scoffed. "Told me the same thing. I didn't read them either."  
  
"And?"  
  
"David, we signed those papers," Ian said softly. "Whatever they outlined, we have legally agreed to."  
  
Ian didn't need to explain why that mattered. David sank back into his seat as realization hit him. 

Those contracts could've explained everything in the game. The real game. They could've outlined his consent to participate in them, and he'd signed the pieces of paper like a fool. Which meant that even if the police found out about the game, or any of the people paying to watch developed a sense of humanity, there was nothing they could do about it. This game was a prison, and David had locked himself into a cell before giving a guard the key.

David couldn't help it. He rested his elbows on the table, put his face in his hands, and started to cry. This information made it all ten times worse, made being in this Hell all too familiar. He felt like he was back in the plains, hearing reality for the first time.

He hadn't been giving the gamemakers a show. He'd been giving  _everyone_  a show. Constantly.

And that was why they targeted him, wasn't it? There were countless asshole gamers out there. But how many of them had millions of people who watched hate videos of them? How many would draw in large crowds who would want to see them die?  
  
The tears kept coming, in larger quantities and faster. He was sobbing now, and there was a small puddle underneath him on the table.

Suddenly, he felt calloused hands around his wrists, and found himself face-to-face with Ian. The other man hugged him and let David bury his head in his shoulder, not unlike Mari had not too long ago. But, in a way David didn't know how to describe, Ian's embrace felt different. Comforting, sure, but something else too.

"It's okay," Ian consoled him. "Let it out."

Nothing was going to be okay. But in Ian's arms, David almost let him believe that they would be.


	21. Chapter 21

It took David a few days to heal enough to work. In those days, he and Ian went back to the conversations they'd had at the start; fun ones, which joking and sarcasm and insults and a hell of a lot of breaking rule number one. It was better that way. Simple. Enjoyable. Just being around Ian made David happy, which was almost scary. No one had ever had that effect on him before, and David had no idea how to deal with it. He tried to tell himself that it was just because he liked looking at Ian, but he knew that wasn't it.

So he tried not to think about it. Problem solved. Sure, it was solved in the same way you'd solve a rubix cube by smashing it with a hammer, but it was solved nonetheless.

On day seven, Ian started getting him to help out with the gardening. The work was hard, and David found himself having to take a shit ton of breaks to help heal his arm. Not that he was complaining. It gave him a chance to watch Ian, who, thank God or whatever was out there, worked without a shirt on.

"What was your life like?" Ian asked during one of David's many breaks. He didn't bother to look up from his work planting carrots as he said it, and there was a hint of breathlessness in his voice. "Before this?"  
  
"Same as anyone's," David replied as he popped one of the blueberries Ian had let him eat into his mouth. "Had a shitty job to try and stop myself from drowning in student debt, kind of got along with my roommate, and played far too many video games."  
  
"That's not anyone's," Ian smirk, earning him a blueberry to the face.

"No, you're right," David agreed with the same smirk. "Mr. My Dad's Rich effortlessly gets into Harvard despite being underqualified, and doesn't even know how to wipe his own ass. But most of us are just like me."  
  
"Mine wasn't," Ian responded.

"Were you Mr. My Dad's Rich?"  
  
"No," Ian sighed. "I was Mr. Scolarship."  
  
"Scholarship?" David whistled. "Watch out, we have a genius on our hands!"

Ian shook his head with a grin. "I was a _gifted_  child. You know, the ones who are signalled out as kids as a genius? Getting the scholarship was easy."  
  
"So you _are_  trying to say that you are a genius, then."

"No," Ian frowned. "Growing up like that  _ruined_  me. Everyone told me that I was smarter than  _everyone_  else my age, and I grew up with a false sense of superiority, thinking I was the best damn kid to grace my school's halls. I never developed any social skills, or made any friends."  
  
"And that earned you a ticket here," David finished.

Ian nodded. "I would've rather been Mr. Shitty Job To Pay Loans, if that meant I could go back and change it. Get to enjoy my childhood."

"I imagine there's a lot of things we'd both change if we could go back," David sighed.

"Yeah," Ian stopped working for a few seconds to stare up at the sky. "There are."

In the moments of silence that followed, David finally saw his opportunity. He'd been here for a week, and he had learned a shit ton about Ian in that time. But he hadn't learned the main question he'd had from the start; why the fuck Ian was here. He could only hope that-

"David?" Ian asked suddenly. "Have you ever been in love?"  
  
The question caught him off guard. "What?"  
  
"You heard me."  
  
David thought about it for a few seconds. Love. A month ago, he would've laughed at the word. "No."

"Then you're lucky," Ian went back to gardening. "You're very, very lucky."

David looked at him for a few seconds. And then, suddenly, something clicked in his subconscious, and he found his mouth moving before he even thought it through. "Ian? Why are you here?"  
  
Ian froze. "What?"  
  
"Why are you here?" David repeated. "You know, in this swamp house? There has to be a reason why you're not part of the group. Some choice you made. _Something._ "

He waited a few seconds. Ian didn't respond.

"The first time I asked you, you said it wasn't something you'd tell to someone who wasn't your friend," David continued. "I think that we've been explicitly stated as friends. Right?"  
  
"Right," Ian closed his eyes. "We are."  
  
"Then tell me," David pleaded. "Please."

Ian pulled off his gloves and walked over to David, before sitting next to him and leaning against the tree supporting the farming balcony they were perched on. David would be lying if he didn't say that having Ian so close sent not-unpleasant shivers down his spine. "It's a long story."  
  
"I've still got a while until my side heals," David joked. "I've got plenty of time."  
  
"What has Mari told you about me?" Ian asked.

"That you were a coward."  
  
"She's not wrong," Ian sighed. "I am. I'm here because I gave up."  
  
When David didn't answer, Ian thankfully got his meaning to carry on. "Mari and Joven were part of the original six, the first people in the game. They must have told you that. Well, I was too, along with a guy named Anthony. The other two died pretty quickly. I don't even remember their names at this point. Only their faces, when we all learned the truth. 

"We had to learn for themselves. I didn't have a Mari to slap some sense into me. We all thought it was a game right until one of us was torn open, and didn't reappear in the barn. Until we all felt some sort of excruciating pain, to shock us into reality. That almost made the early days the worst.

"The four of us made a pretty good team. The other two would come and go, and I'd have to crush my pain at losing them each time in order to keep going. It was easier, with how quickly they came and went. But I still felt it, and my heart broke with every person who died. The other three were the only ones keeping me going.

"And then it was level five, and we were in a desert. The sun was blazing hot, and we had no idea where our objective was. I can't even remember what it was now. We never achieved it.

"Our water ran out on day four, and we had no choice but to keep going. Fulfilling our objective was our only hope of survival. But it was pointless. By day seven, we couldn't even move. We lay in a circle, and then we waited, wondering; who would be the first to fall?

"That uncertainty of  _who_  but certainty of _someone_ made it the worst death I'd ever seen. We laid there for hours,  _wondering._ Would it be Mari? Me? Joven? Anthony? There was no way to tell. I didn't even have the strength to grab my knife and end it all, just to make sure it wasn't one of them.

"Then, suddenly, everything went white, and we were back in the barn. And Anthony was gone. He'd died in that desert, horribly, and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

The pained look on Ian's face told David all he needed to know. "You loved him, didn't you?"  
  
"Not that it mattered. He only liked women. And I accepted that," there was a tear in Ian's eye now. "Above all, he was my best friend. Losing him was too much. It  _broke_  me. I couldn't keep going. I knew that on our first objective, I wouldn't have the strength to fight. I'd die, and it would break Mari and Joven even more. I couldn't let that happen. Not for anything.

"And then we spawned here, in this swamp, and had to come here. It was nothing more than a platform back then, but I saw its potential. And that night, I went into the water, dropped to my knees, and begged them to let me stay here and let the others go on. A book appeared in my lap, detailing the rules, and then it was done."  
  
"I bet Mari didn't like that very much," David joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, but it was more for the sadness of losing me than anything," Ian replied. "One of the rules was that whenever there was another player on the level, I couldn't go ten meters past my house, or I'd rejoin the group. So I had to watch her go."  
  
"She certainly doesn't look sad about it now," David could still remember the rage written on Mari's face when they spawned in the swamp. He'd never seen anyone have so much disdain and hatred for someone else before in his life. She'd almost been scary to look at.  
  
"That's because she doesn't hate me for leaving," Ian sighed. "She hates me because of Peter."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"He showed up three playthroughs before I came here. He and Mari fell hopelessly in love. And he died the playthrough I left on," Ian looked down. "She thinks that if I had been there, if we had full numbers, he would have lived. Whether that's true or not, we'll never know. But that's what she hates me for."  
  


And suddenly, everything made sense. David had been wondering why Mari had hated Ian far more than Joven had, even though they both had the exact same reason. Losing someone she loved... that made perfect sense. It was a lot easier to lose someone if you had someone to blame for their death. You'd never really have to accept the fact that they were gone that way, to let reality sink in, that they were dead, and there was nothing you could do or could've done to stop it.

That was when a thought struck him. "So Wes is just a... rebound?"  
  
"I don't know," Ian looked at David. "I'm sure he started as one, but whether or not she really loves him now or is still using him to drown the pain, I don't know."  
  
"I think she loves him," surprisingly, David found that he believed those words.  
  
"You'd know better than me."

There were a few seconds of silence as David tried to think of what to say. "It's Mari and Joven, isn't it? That's why you left. You couldn't bear the thought of watching either of them die."

"They are a brother and sister to me," Ian wiped his eyes. "One day, I know, one of them is going to show up without the other. And I have no idea what I'll do then."  
  
"It'll be easier than having to watch them die."  
  
"That's why I'm here," Ian didn't even bother to wipe away the fresh tears flowing down his cheeks. "But _easier_  doesn't mean _easy_ , does it?"

"No," David agreed. "It doesn't."

And then, instinctually, he wrapped his arm around Ian's shoulder and pulled him to his side. Thanks to his morning vial, it didn't even hurt to do so.

Ian instantly leaned into him, resting his head on David's shoulder as he did. David rested the side of his head on top of his, and gave his arm the most comforting squeeze he could muster. A few seconds later, he started to feel Ian's tears wetting his shirt, and he didn't mind in the slightest.

"Hey Ian?" he asked after they'd stayed like that for a few minutes.

"Yeah?" the bearded man answered.

"You'd care if I died, right?" David asked.

Ian snorted. "You seriously have to ask that?"  
  
"Yes."

"You're kidding me," Ian looked up at him with a judging look. "Of course I fucking would. We're established friends, remember?"  
  
"Yeah," David sighed as Ian resumed his previous position. "Established friends."  
  
Neither of them said another word as they watched the sunset together. What seemed like mere minutes after the sky had gone dark, Ian started to snore softly, despite the cold night's air. David didn't dare move him. He looked too cute where he was right now to disturb him.

But David didn't fall asleep for a long, long time.


	22. Chapter 22

David got better day by day. By day nine, he could help Ian out in the garden while only taking breaks when his host did. By day eleven, he no longer needed the painkilling concoction. On day fourteen, Ian took off the gauze, only to find that David was completely healed.

He should've been ecstatic at the news. But he wasn't. A small part of him had been dreading this day. Because now, he had a choice to make.

The two weeks he'd spent with Ian had been two of the best of his life. Being around Ian made him happy in general. David felt no motivation to leave. Especially when it came to facing what was out there.

His dreams had been haunted by the hooded women, who Ian told him were part of the main witch's coven. This was the second time the witch had spawned, but the first time any active players encountered her. Seeing as it was a lot easier to make his house have invisible walls to keep coven members out than to change their code from "attack all players, no matter who they are," Ian was more than familiar with them. He'd spotted more than one green-skinned women sniffing around, trying to get to him. If David left, he'd have to face those women again, and worst.

The knife had been bad enough. He didn't want to know what else they had in store for him.

Almost every part of him wanted to stay here, with Ian. To plant seeds and feed cows and eat potatoes until they grew old and died. It sounded like Heaven, in so many ways, and it was so, so tempting.

But none of it would be real. It would be lines of code, and the real Ian and David would be separated by however many walls were between them until their hearts stopped beating. No matter how real this house and everything in it felt, it might as well have been made of plastic.

Worst of all, they would have people watching them. There was nowhere they could go to hide from their prying eyes. No matter which direction David and Ian's relationship and life went in, he didn't want to have an audience watching them. He didn't want to have his entire life watched period.

And the others. Mari. Matthew. Joven. Damien. Wes. David could see their chips on the table. They had all found each other. Which meant he was the only thing holding them back. Who knows what they thought had happened to him. From the way they moved throughout the days, he knew they were looking for him. That made him feel incredibly guilty

He couldn't leave them. The last time someone had left, it had put everyone at a severe disadvantage. David couldn't stomach the thought of any of them dying, just so he could stay here and fool around with a frog-leg potion in a highly-flammable house. He had to help them. 

Besides, he wanted to leave the game. Desperately. He wanted to breath real, fresh air from trees and go jumping in cold rivers that a real beaver had pissed in. He wanted to buy the same Groot pyjamas Sabrina had and watch shitty Netflix originals with her while joking about how he was going to steal her man. He wanted to quit his stupid job and get hired by a big firm. He wanted to live.

So he never had a choice, in the end. Not really. But that didn't make it any easier to stomach.

The worst part was the fact that Ian knew. He never said it out loud, but David could tell. He knew Ian well enough by now to be able to read his face, to know what he was thinking. And he knew that Ian already knew the answer to the unspoken question they'd both been thinking about for days.

And then, on day sixteen, David finally mustered the courage to say it. "I need to go."

Ian gently lowered his fork onto the table. "I know."

"It's not because I want to," David frantically assured him. "I'd stay if I-"

"David," Ian looked up. "I know."

He'd probably meant for those words to be comforting, but they cut into David like knives. He knew. He'd always known, from the second he'd carried David's bleeding, unconscious body up into his bed. That this was what it would come down to. That this was going to be the result.

"You're going to want some supplies, I assume," Ian announced as he quickly stood up, leaving his half-eaten potatoes on the table. David could tell that he was trying hard not to cry, though if it was for David's sake or his own, he couldn't tell. Maybe it was both. "Not that I'd let you go without them, of course."

"Yeah," David chuckled softly, though he had to force himself to do it. "You'd wrap me in bubble wrap if you could, just to keep me safe."

"Or at least put those arm floaties on you," Ian joked. It was their normal banter, but the heart wasn't there. And that just made everything that much more painful.

It took a few minutes for Ian to assemble a bag for him. He used David's original orange one, flattening down the contents to throw in some matches, clean water, and of course, pre-baked potatoes. Once he was done, he lightly put it on the table next to David, who hadn't taken a single bite of his meal since Ian stood up.

"I have one last thing I need to tell you," Ian's voice cracked on the tell.

"Yeah?" David asked.

"I've been strictly instructed not to tell you this, but rules were meant to be broken, right?" he smiled as he sat down, though it didn't come close to reaching his eyes. "The witch can't be killed regularly. As long as her heart is inside her chest, nothing can hurt her for long. A light kick and a throat slit would do the same amount of damage to her. And a blade through the heart won't take her down either. You have to cut around the heart and pull it out to take her down. Otherwise, she'll just keep on going."

"That sounds rather difficult," David joked, trying to swallow his nervousness. Difficult didn't even begin to cover it. The witch had to be incredibly powerful to control so many coven members, and the last one he ran into could throw him through the air like a ragdoll. It sounded impossible. "Especially for level three."

"It is," Ian closed his eyes. "I guess you weren't entertaining enough the past two levels. Had to make up for the low ratings."

"I'm the most entertaining person to ever step foot in this game," David replied. "Ratings skyrocketed the second I entered."

"Plummeted would be more accurate," Ian grinned, this time reaching his eyes. David grinned right back, and for a few seconds, he could pretend that this was normal. The same as all the other days, and that he wasn't going to have to force himself out the door far too soon that he would like too.

But then Ian screamed, and his hands flew to his cheek. When he took them off, his skin was red. Running diagonally from his nose to his jawline, prompted by nothing, was a long cut. It sent long strands of blood trailing down his cheek and neck.

A punishment fee.

David quickly got to his feet and grabbed a piece of cloth from the shelf, before pressing it to Ian's face. They were so close now, as David dabbed away the blood. All he had to do was Ian forward, and they'd be kissing. And God, was he tempted to.

But that would only make things worse. He didn't know if Ian felt anything for him at all. Heck, he didn't even know what he felt for Ian. So he leaned back the second he was done, sure that his face was red just from the thought.

"So," Ian muttered as he pressed the new piece of cloth David had grabbed for him against his face. "This is it."

"Yeah," David responded. "I suppose it is."

"Well," Ian sighed. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too," David responded. "Obviously."

"Try not to die, okay?" Ian asked. "I better see you among the next group who knocks at my door."

"Or what?" David prompted, trying desperately to bring back the banter he felt so comfortable with. "What could you do to me if I was dead?"

"I'd reach into Hell and pull you back up just to kill you all over again," Ian joked, before wincing in pain. The act of smiling must have hurt his cut. "Seriously though, David. Don't fucking die."

"Not planning on it," David responded. "And I'll uh, try and keep Mari and Joven alive too."

"If they've survived this long, I doubt there's anything you can do that they couldn't just do themselves," Ian replied. "Tell- tell them that I admire them. For the fact that they're still going, even though they know that I'm here. The fact that they sill have hope is beyond me."

"Huh," David smiled. "I thought you'd think they were stupid for that."

"I do," Ian grunted. "There's no way out of this fucking game, and that's a fact. But that doesn't mean I don't admire them for it."

"And what, you don't admire me?"

"You've only been here for a month. Try being here for as long as I have, and see how much hope you have left."

"It was the best month of your life though, wasn't it?"

"That's for me to decide," Ian smiled and winced. "No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"I know my own feelings better than you do, David."

"That's debatable," David replied, and Ian lifted the side of his mouth that wasn't cut open. "Goodbye, Ian."

Ian's mouth dropped. "Bye, David. Until next time."

"I hope there isn't a next time," David responded, before realizing how bad that sounded. "Not because I like, hate you or anything. Just because that meant someone would have died, you know?"

"Yeah, David, I know," Ian chuckled. "Don't forget your bag on the way out."

"Okay, Mom," David teased. All Ian did in response was flip him off.

He grabbed his backpack from the table and slung it over his shoulder, before making his way to the door and opening it. With one last wave at Ian, which he returned, David stepped outside.

Earlier that day, he'd studied the table. He had to go to the north which, thanks to a compass he'd "borrowed" from Ian, he actually knew how to get to. He pocketed the device and climbed down, before heading off to find his friends and end this.

He walked for a solid ten minutes before turning back, unable to stop himself. Ian was leaning against the balcony, an already blood-soaked piece of cloth pressed against his face, which was leaking. He probably didn't want to waste a single second of seeing David. For all Ian knew, this was the last time he'd ever see him.

They made eye contact, and then they were staring at each other, neither of them breaking it. The look of pain and sadness he could see in Ian's eyes, even from this distance, was enough to almost make David run back and hug him, just to make it go away. He didn't want to hurt Ian in any way, shape, or form. And yet he was, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

It took David a few seconds to gather the strength to look away. He quickly faced forward and started walking again, this time much faster. He had to put as much space between him and Ian as possible. If he saw those eyes again, he didn't know if he'd be able to look away again.

The next time his willpower broke and he looked back, the house, and Ian, were gone, and all he could see were trees.


	23. Chapter 23

David tried not to think about Ian as he walked, but that was impossible. Every step reminded him of what he'd left behind, and how much he wanted to go back. He had to keep his compass in his hand to remind him why he was leaving in the first place.

He  _had_  to find the others.

God, he hoped they wouldn't move much. The path he'd mapped out for himself from Ian's was for a direct point. If they strayed too far, he'd miss them. And from how much they'd been moving over the past two weeks, trying to find him... David tried not to think about.

The things he was trying not to think about were piling up by the minute.

There was one thought that kept his hopes up; they'd found each other. Compassless, mapless, and with no idea where the others were, and yet they'd found one another. If they could do it, he could do it too. At least he sure  _hoped_  he could.

David walked for hours on end. Walking with the others had been bad; walking alone was awful. He could hear everything; the water splashing against his legs, the croak of frogs in the distance, wind blowing through leaves. He felt like he was in the middle of a horror movie.

It was the loneliness that was the first part. Without a stab wound to distract him, David was acutely aware of just how alone he was. He'd felt alone since the second he walked out of Ian's door, and now that it was given time to fester, it threatened to overcome him. It was hard to keep the feeling of hopelessness out.

Eventually, the sun dipped so far below the horizon that David could barely see two feet ahead of him anymore. Every part of him wanted to keep going, but he had no choice but to set up camp. He waddled over to the nearest landmass and climbed onto it, before unrolling his sleeping bag and jumping into it. The second he was in it, he realized that he was freezing.

He ate the potato Ian had given him, seeing as he didn't have too much time until it started to rot, and drifted off to sleep.

• • •

When he awoke, the sun had just started to rise. He'd rolled so much in his slumber that half of his body was leaning over the water. It was a miracle he hadn't toppled over yet.

Quickly, he rolled back and hoped out of the sleeping bag, almost tripping over himself as he did. What little sleep he'd gotten had been light and restless, and he felt absolutely exhausted. He felt the familiar tug of hunger in his stomach, but couldn't bring himself to eat anything.

Just when he had everything packed and was ready to leave, something caught his eye. Right at the base of the tree, just far enough that any sparks wouldn't hit it, was a pile of burnt sticks. Someone had made a fire here. And there were only five people who that  _someone_  could've been.

He rushed over to it. Unfortunately, he'd never been much of a survivalist, and had no idea what to look for to tell how old the remains were. It could have been a day or a week for all he knew.

But there was a chance that they might be nearby, and it was one he had to take. "Mari! Matthew! Anyone!"

A few seconds passed. No answer. He tried again. No answer. Then again, and again, and again, and-

"David!"

It was faint, but David recognized that voice. _Wes._ They have to be close

"Wes!" David yelled. "Where are you?"  
  
"What?" Wes yelled back. It was then that David realized Wes was too far away to actually hear him. He could probably only make out his voice.

David shoved his backpack over his shoulders and hopped into the water, heading in the direction Wes' voice was coming from. "Stay there!"  
  
"What?"

He ran as fast as his legs would let him towards the others. A few minutes later, he could hear the splashing of their legs along with his own, and then he could see them. Mari was running the fastest, with everyone else trailing behind her. The second she saw him, a smile spread across her lips.

"David!" she yelled happily as she sprung on him to hug him, almost knocking him over from the force of it. "You're back!"  
  
"Where have you been, you fucking bastard?" Matthew asked as he joined in. The next thing David knew, all five of him were hugging him tightly. He felt like he could barely breathe. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"  
  
"Would've thought you were dead if it wasn't for the fact that we didn't respawn," Wes grinned as he ruffled David's hair. "We were expecting everything to go white any second."  
  
"It takes a lot to kill me," David replied after everyone let go of him and he could speak.

"Does it now?" Wes raised an eyebrow. "I bet I could do it right now if I wanted to."  
  
David flipped him off.

"Seriously though," Matthew stated. "Where the fuck have you been? We've checked everywhere."  
  
Everyone's head turned to him, expecting an answer. Worry settled in David's stomach. How was Mari going to feel about the answer? "I... I was at Ian's."  
  
"You were where now?" Mari asked immediately, her smile melting off her face quicker than wax from a candle.

"Ian's," David repeated. "I got stabbed. I'd be dead right now if it wasn't for him."

"You got stabbed," Mari said slowly. "And you went to  _him?_  How'd you even get there?"

"I wasn't too far away from him," David replied. "And where else was I supposed to go?"  
  
"To us!"  
  
"I had no idea where you were! It took you days to find each other! If I tried to find you, I would've been dead by sunset! And what would you have even done anyway?"

"We would've helped you!"  
  
"How?"  
  
"The same way he did!"  
  
"That's impossible!"  
  
"What could he have done that we couldn't?"

"He had potions!"  
  
"He had  _what?_ " Mari bellowed. "How the Hell could he even have those?"

"There's a lot of things you don't know about him," David replied, before he could stop himself.

"You think you know him better than I do? I've known him for years!" Mari pushed him in the chest, hard enough to send him falling backward. If Wes hadn't caught him, he would've gone straight into the water. "You don't know anything about him!"

"Mari-" Joven started as he put his hand on his shoulder to try and consul her. She instantly wrenched away.

Once again, David's lips starting moving before he could stop them. "I know he's a good person. You just hate him because of Peter!"

Mari froze, as if David had punched her. Her hands started clutching and clutching at her sides. David took a step back to brace himself; knowing Mari, she was going to attack any second.

Surprisingly, she didn't. Instead, she started furiously wiping her eyes, trying to hide the tears that had formed. "Let's just forget this. I'm glad you're alive. There's no reason to talk about  _him_  anymore."

"I second that," Joven piped in as an attempt to de-escalate the situation. The four others all nodded in agreement.

Half of David wanted to keep going. It was absolute  _bullshit_  that Mari treated Ian the way she did, and David felt the urge to stand up for his friend, though he wasn't sure if  _friend_  was quite the right word to use. But a fight with Mari probably wouldn't end well for him, so he kept his mouth shut and nodded.

"Good," Mari sighed. "Now, let's move on to what's important."

She looked over at Joven, who cleared his throat. "After we were all separated, Wes managed to incapacitate the one attacking him, and kept her contained until he found the rest of us. We managed to get some pretty useful information out of her before we killed her."

"The witch we have to kill is located at the middle of the swamp," Matthew explained, picking up where Joven left off. "All the doors inside are booby-trapped, except for the one with the vines growing over it. We'll have to attack at midday to avoid the coven members who will be guarding it."

There was a long pause as David waited for someone to continue explaining, but no one did. "That's it?"

Mari nodded. "She refused to tell us anything else, no matter how hard we tried. But hey, at least we got something, right?"

"We'll figure out the rest of the details as we go," Joven shrugged. "We don't have a choice, really. The only thing stopping us from attacking was the fact that we didn't have you."  
  
"But now that we do, we might as well get started," Wes clapped his hands together. "Let's get going. There's no need to waste any more sunlight."  
  
"Wait!" David shouted as everyone moved to leave. Now was as good a time as any. "I know something, actually."  
  
"Which is..." Wes prompted.

"Ian told me how to kill the witch," David explained. "The only way she'll die is if her heart is completely out of her body. If a single piece of it remains in her, no matter how small, she can keep going."  
  
"He told you that?" Mari raised an eyebrow. "I thought he'd been forbidden to."  
  
"He was," David looked down. "They cut open his cheek for it."  
  
"Huh," she pursed her lips. "I'm glad he did something right."

There were a few seconds of sickly silence, before Joven cleared his throat. "Well then, now that that's settled, let's go kill that damn witch!"


	24. Chapter 24

It took them three days to find the witch. They'd all long since run out of salted beef, and had to depend on whatever animals they could find. Despite the fact that David knew the animals weren't real, he still had to look away whenever Mari and Wes skinned them, and could barely bring himself to eat them. Combine that with the fact that the long-hour treks were absolutely unenjoyable, and David couldn't be happier to see the long stone walls of the witch's lair.

Lair was putting it nicely. There wasn't that much to see. All the area consisted off were rough stones wall that circled a tree. Every few feet, there was a doorway carved into the walls. Some of them were stained red with blood, most likely from coven members who forgot to turn off whatever trap the passageway contained.

The most impressive thing about it, however, was the tree. It was humongous, far bigger than the plain's tree had been. Even from their distance, it's massive leaves sent shadows over them.

"I think that's the tree we're supposed to bury the heart under," Joven muttered, stating the obvious. Mari lightly punched him on the arm.

"Everyone, be as quiet as possible," she whispered. "We can't be noticed."  
  
David didn't need to be told twice. He still remembered what it felt like to have that knife in his stomach, and that was an experience he did  _not_ want to repeat.

They silently started to circle the building, using bushes and the tree's shade as cover. David tried to stay on solid ground for as long as possible, to avoid any splashing. Thankfully, none of the coven members guarding the doors seemed to notice their presence, and kept chatting with each other.

It didn't take them long to find the door the coven member had told them about. For a swamp, it was surprising that only one door had vines on it, but here it was. Five coven members stood on guard, not bothering to keep their hoods drawn. All of them had the same red skin, and their skin was a pale green.

Now, they had to wait.

They had arrived in the morning, and had no choice but to wait until sunset, when the guard rotation would occur and they'd have a chance to slip inside. Unfortunately, that was going to hours away. And without them being allowed to speak for safety purposes, that left David with nothing to do but sit down against a tree and sigh.

So, naturally, he started thinking about Ian.

After they finished their objective, David would never see him again. And if he did, it would only be because someone died. Neither of those options seemed pleasant, but they were the only two that existed. And that made David sadder than he could describe.

The thought of never seeing Ian again, of never hearing him laugh or complain about potatoes or ruffle his hair or any of the other things David had grown to expect from the man, broke David's heart. When he closed his eyes, he could still feel Ian's head on his shoulder, or his arms around him. He'd never feel those things again.

He wondered if those thoughts were going to haunt him forever.

At some point, he must've dozed off, because next thing he knew Mari was shaking him. When he looked up at the sky, he found that it was orange.

"We have to go," she announced. "Now. We don't have much time."  
  
David nodded and jumped to his feet to join the others, who were waiting for them in the water with their weapons already drawn. He pulled out his sword as they started walking, but after not using it for weeks, the weight of it almost made him drop it. He had to swing it around a few times to get used to it again.

They reached the door within minutes. Wes barged in first, with Mari hot on his heels. David followed them next, twirling his sword as he did. He was ready for this. He had to be.

He found himself in a hallway, with wooden doors covering the neatly-painted walls. Underneath his feet was a tacky carpet. The sight would've fit better in a cheap hotel, not a witch's lair. Where the Hell had this come from?

Matthew was the last to come in. The second he was completely inside, the door sealed behind him, leaving nothing behind but solid wall. Wes tried to hit it, but it did no good. They were stuck.

"She knows we're here," David muttered. There was no way she couldn't have, if she'd been able to do that. They were only seconds into their plan, and it was already going wrong.

"The coven member must've bullshitted us," Wes growled. "This must be a trap."  
  
"Doesn't matter now," Mari sighed as she passed her spear between her hands. "We're here. Now let's go meet our host."

She started walking forward, and no one had any choice but to follow. She was right; they were stuck here now. Their only hope was to get out of her as quickly as possible and move on.

They walked for what felt like hours, and still the hallway didn't curve. It didn't take David to realize what it was; magic. All that realization did was chill him to his bones. If the witch could easily do this, to break the laws of psychics, who  _knew_ what she could do to them.

Eventually, they arrived at the end of the hallway. Mari ran her hands against the wall, before knocking on it. The sound that returned told them all they needed to know; it was solid. With no exit in sight, David realized that this meant they would have to turn back.

It seemed that Mari had other ideas, however. "Start opening doors."  
  
Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. There were what seemed like hundreds of doors. Opening every one of them would take days.

But, like always, there wasn't a better alternative, so everyone got to work. David walked down the hall for a bit before starting to open doors in a line.

Every room he saw was identical. They were padded rooms, like you'd see in an insane asylum. In the center of each room was a mannequin, their blank, smooth plastic bodies shining under the intense light. They were creepy enough without the large red splotches on their chests, obviously meant to symbolize blood. 

He didn't shut the door whenever he moved to the next one, to let the others know that he'd already checked it. The next hour was nothing but door after door, mannequin after mannequin, on and on. His hand started to cramp from how many damn doors he had to open.

Then, thankfully, Mari shouted, "I've found something!"  
  
Everyone instantly rushed to her door. Instead of the usual room, there was a sprawling garden laid out in front of them. David spotted every flower imaginable among the shrubbery, though he was pretty sure that it was impossible for them all to exist in the same climate. Above them, the sun illuminated a should-be night sky. The only recognizable element was the tree, though it unnaturally didn't cast any shade.

"This has to be it," Matthew observed. "The tree wouldn't be here if it wasn't."  
  
Instead of answering, Mari walked into the garden. David and the others followed her in quickly. When he looked back, all he saw was more garden. Once again, their door was gone.

He looked forward again, and all of a sudden there was a platform leaning against the tree. It was made of wood, and couldn't have been more than a meter in height. On it were three tables, all of them with the same tablecloth spread over them, and the same three plastic chairs surrounding them.

Sitting on in one of the chairs, behind the table in the center of the platform, was a woman.

She was wearing a ridiculously large black-and-white fur coat, with a simple white tank top underneath it and navy-blue ripped jeans on her legs. Her long hair was done up in a tight bun, and big cat-eye sunglasses framed her eyes. In her hands was a teacup, which she placed on the table as they walked in.

If it wasn't for her dark green skin, she would've looked completely normal.

"Ah, there you are!" she smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth. "I've been waiting for you for  _forever."_

"We got caught up in the hall," Mari replied, her voice bitter.

"Yes, I know," the woman's eyes shone as she spoke. "That's what it's for, after all."

There were a few seconds of silence as everyone stared at her. David had to admit; this wasn't what he expected. Sure, the coven members had given him the impression that she wouldn't be the wart-covered witches he had seen on cartoons growing up, but he'd been expecting something more... swampy. Not a woman dressed in what looked like designer clothes.

"Well, let's get started then, shall we?" the witch said as she took a spoonful of sugar and dropped it into her tea. "I have such big plans for us. What should I start with?"  
  
"How about we start with us killing you," Wes growled, holding his sword out in front of them.

All the witch did in response was laugh. "Oh, I like you. Cutting straight to the point, are we? I can play at that game."

She snapped her fingers, and Wes started to sink into the concrete. He tried to step out of it, but his feet seemed like they were glued to the ground. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

Joven quickly rushed to his side to try and pull him out, but all that accomplished him was his own feet starting to sink into the ground. Before anyone had any time to react, Damien and Matthew started sinking too, eliciting a scream from the slimmer man.

"I wanted them out of the picture anyway," the witch stated as she stood up and stretched. "I've been looking forward to you two the most."

David and Mari shared a worried glance. By this point, Wes was at his knees, and even he was starting to look panicked.

The witch chucked her tea at them, which they dodged easily. When it hit the ground, the concrete started to melt.  _Acid._

"Hmm," the witch jumped off the platform and put her finger on her chin. "Who to start with? The woman, or the man my girls can't get to's friend? Decisions, decisions."  
  
"What?" David asked, her words barely processing in his head from how panicked he was. His friends didn't have much time, and they had no idea how to kill this woman. From what he'd seen so far, she was invincible.  
  
"Oh, don't play coy with me," the witch rolled her eyes. "I can smell him on you. And if I can't kill them, well, you'll have to do."

"And me?" Mari hissed. "What do you want with me?"  
  
"You're a woman, darling," the witch smiled. "That puts you above all of them. I'd hate to make such a precious death boring."

"No, it really doesn't," Mari raised her spear. "And you're not going to kill me, you green-skinned bitch."  
  
"Oh, you can think of a better insult then that," the witch yawned. "And I've made my choice."  
  
She raised her hand, and Mari went flying backward, landing a solid thirty meters away with a moan of pain.

"You-" Wes started, but the witch cut him off by shoving an apple in his mouth and patting him on the head, before pulling two knives out of her coat and walking towards Mari.

Instinctively, David shoved his sword through her back. The witch looked down at the blade protruding through her chest, shrugged, and kept walking, letting the metal slide out of her as she did. She didn't even leave any blood on it.

By the time she reached Mari, the purple-haired woman had gotten to her feet. The witch reached under her chin and lifted her face to look at her. "Ready to have some  _fun,_  darling?"


	25. Chapter 25

She tossed Mari to the side, sending the woman flying once more. David watched with wide as eyes as the witch started waving her hands through the air, sending Mari crashing into the ground with each flick of her wrists. He didn't know what to do.

Well, he knew that he should help her. He just didn't know how. The witch had been less bothered by his sword than David felt bothered by a paper cut, and from how much she was moving to toss Mari around, he didn't have a clear chance to cut out her heart. It seemed hopeless to even try, and so he froze, trying to calculate the situation and coming up empty-handed.

"David! What the fuck are you doing!" Wes bellowed from behind him. The platinum-haired man was now submerged to his waist. "Help her!"

As soon as the words left his lips, Mari fell to the ground a few meters away. Her skin was covered in small cuts, and a few roses stuck to her by their thorns. Every breath she took made her wheeze.

"C'mon darling, get up!" the witch taunted. "You can do better than that!"

Mari got to her feet and staggered, as if she was about to fall over. A small trail of blood ran out of her mouth. "You don't know the half of it, lady."  
  
Before the witch had time to raise her hands again, Mari charged her and tackled her to the ground. The two women started wrestling on the ground, scratching each other and pulling each other's hair as they did, as if they were animals. Eventually, Mari smashed her forehead into the witch's and managed to climb on top of her, before starting to pummel her face with punches.

David inched closer to her as Mari threw down hit after hit, turning the witch's face into a bloody mess. By the time she stopped, her knuckles bleeding heavily and her breathing haggard, the witch's face was unrecognizable. David extended his hand and helped her up, before positioning his sword over the green-skinned woman's chest to carve out her heart.

Before he got the chance, however, the witch started laughing. It was high-pitched and joyful, and didn't sound natural in the slightest. She laughed and laughed and laughed as blood started to flow out of every pore in her body, turning the grass underneath her crimson, until her skin was so pale it almost looked normal. Then the body turned to dust.

A clapping sound started. David and Mari instantly whirled around, only to see the witch standing right behind them, grinning.

"That's what I'm talking about!" the witch giggled. "Do it again!"  
  
Mari screamed in anger and picked up her spear from the ground, which had been broken clean in half during one of her many falls. She threw it as hard as she could at the witch. The weapon buried itself underneath their opponent's shoulderblade, going clean through her body. The witch didn't even bother to pull it out, instead opting to flex over it.

That seemed to be all Mari had left. The purple-haired woman dropped to her knees and started to cough into her hand. When she looked up, David noticed that her fingers were covered in blood.

"Done so soon?" the witch pouted when Mari started to wobble. "That's disappointing. But if that's the way it's going to be..."  
  
She pulled her knives back out of her pockets. "Then I'm going to finish this."  
  
"No!" Wes screamed, struggling desperately against the concrete. "Don't touch her!"

All his pleading did was make the witch's smile grow as she stalked towards Mari, who was now on her hands and knees.

"David!" Wes yelled. Joven, Damien and Matthew's voices soon joined his, all of them screaming the same thing. "David! _Help_  her!"

The witch noticed David looking at them. "Don't worry, boy. You'll get your turn next."  
  
But he wouldn't. The second the witch killed Mari, the game would reset. David would be fine. And he'd have to spend the rest of his life knowing that he did nothing to save one of the few friends he'd ever had. The witch might be the one who would end Mari's life, but her blood would be on David's hands.

"You're lucky you put up a good fight," the witch smiled as she grabbed Mari's hair and yanked her head back. Mari whined in pain. "Otherwise I wouldn't make this nearly as quick."

She kissed the side of Mari's head almost tenderly, and then she put her knife against Mari's throat. Even from his spot a meter away, David could see Mari wince from the cold.

And then, before he even thought it through, David acted.

He ran at the witch and kicked her forward, making the knife slid in the opposite direction of Mari's neck. He stomped on the witch's wrist, making her drop the blade, before picking it up and burying it in her other shoulder.

The witch screamed in rage. "You're going to regret that, boy!"

She flicked her wrist, and David expected to go flying. But he didn't. Instead, a shooting pain ran up his arm.

He looked down, only to find that his flesh had been ripped open, as if someone had cut him. It reminded him of Ian's cheek, and his punishment scars. But this one was far, far deeper than any of Ian's had been. He could see the whiteness of his bone, and he was pretty sure that made him scream louder than the pain did.

A second later, he felt the same pain on his other arm. Then his left calf, and his cheek, and his stomach. He fell to his knees, his scream neverending with each new wound he got.

"Stop it!" Mari managed to croak out. "Leave him alone! Come back to me!"  
  
The witch didn't listen. She just kept going and going, cutting David open with each swing of her hand. He had long since fallen on his back, and his vision had started to go black at the edges. If it was from blood loss or the pain, he didn't know.

Finally, it stopped. The witch walked over to him and looked down, grimacing. She held out her hand, and a rigged sword appeared in her grasp.

"The woman earned her painless death," the witch growled. "You did not. I'm going to  _slowly_  cut you open, and then my girls are going to drop what remains of you as close to that damn loner's house as they possibly can."

She raised her sword high above her head. "This is going to be fun."

David closed his eyes, ready for her blow. A type of serenity washed over him. If anyone had to die, he was glad it was going to be him. Mari deserved to keep on going. The group needed her. They didn't need him.

He didn't want to die. But at the same time, he was ready for this. And so he waited to feel the sword rip through him.

And then he heard the scream.

His eyes shot open, just in time to see the sword drop out of the witch's hand. She shot a worried glance over at Mari, who looked just as shocked as she did. That was when David noticed the edge of the knife protruding from her chest, and the bloody half-circle it had already made in her skin.

Before anyone, let alone the witch, knew what was happening, it was over. There was a loud squelching sound, and the witch dropped to her knees, her sunglasses sliding off her face. David could tell from her eyes that she was dead before she hit the ground.

Before his eyes, her body started to transform. Her hair became greasy and fractured. Her skin started to pale and turn bumpy. Her clothes started to transform into frayed black robes, and her blue eyes turned black. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was nothing but dust.

Shaking, David looked up to where she had once been standing. There, her heart held in his blood-stained fist, was Ian. 

"Ian!" David shouted as he shot to his feet with a strength he didn't know he had. 

"Hey, David," Ian grinned, before wincing and dropping to his knees. The heart fell out of his fingers and rolled onto the ground.

David rushed to his side and pulled up his shirt, already knowing what he'd find. Sure enough, there was a large gash on Ian's side, right where the first teleportation price scar had been. Ian had been cut open. And if something wasn't done soon, he was going to die.

"Matthew!" David shouted, glancing over at the three men who had been ejected from the ground the second the witch had gone down. "Help me!"

"No, David, you get help first," Ian coughed. "You're hurt."

"So are you!" David protested, even though he was fighting to stay conscious. So what if there was a copious amount of blood running down his arms, and that so much blood was running out of a cut on his forehead that he couldn't open his left eye? He'd rather be flayed alive then let Ian die.

Ian came first. He had to.

Matthew got to them fairly quickly, along with the others. Mari had gotten to them too, before picking up the heart and passing it to Joven.

"Bury it," she instructed. "Quickly! We don't have much time."

Joven nodded and ran over to the tree, Damien tight on his heels. Wes stayed behind to try and fawn over Mari, but she had him running after the others in mere seconds. Then she passed out, hitting the grass with a soft thump.

"David, get over here," Matthew instructed. "I'm doing you first."  
  
"No!" David screamed. "Heal him!"  
  
"You're closer to death," Matthew argued. "You look like every inch of you has been painted with blood, and I know it's your own. How you're even still conscious is beyond me. Now get over here!"  
  
David opened his mouth to protest, but Ian grabbed his arm. "David. Let him."

The second he stared into those blue eyes, David knew he couldn't refuse. Defeated, he crawled over to Matthew, who already had his first aid kit open and ready to go.

As Matthew got to work, David glanced over at the three men working with the heart. They seemed to be using their swords to make up for the lack of shovels. From the looks of it, they were a long way off.

Reality struck David quickly. This could be it. Mari was already unconscious, and both he and Ian were bleeding profusely. Matthew wasn't an angel. One of them was going to die here. There was no way all of them could make it through.

David glanced down at Ian, who was already starting to drift off. He couldn't let that happen. It startled him at just how willing he was to die, if it meant saving Ian. But he would easily slide his blade through his stomach if it was what it took to keep Ian's heart pumping.

"Wounds reset with level switches, remember?" Matthew reminded him, as if he could sense David's thoughts.

"They do?" David asked, slurring over his words.

"You haven't noticed the fact that the scar you got from those monkey things is gone?" Matthew raised an eyebrow. "They do. As long as that damn heart gets buried soon, we're all going to be fine."

The blood loss had really started to get to David by that point. Half of his vision was completely black, and what remained was blurring. All he could make out was the shape of Ian's body below him. Everything was tinted red, though if it was from blood in his eye or something else, David didn't know.

He felt Matthew grab his other arm, and heard yelling in the distance, though he couldn't tell who it was. Were Wes and the others done? Or had something gone wrong?

Before he had time to figure out, David fell backwards, unconscious.


	26. Chapter 26

David's eyes jerked open suddenly, as if someone had splashed water on his face. For a few seconds, he thought someone did. He sat up hurriedly and glanced around, trying to find the suspect, before realizing he wasn't wet.

The witch's lair was gone. In its place was a... ravine would probably be the best word. He was sitting on the rocky, uneven ground of the massive fissure in the earth. It was so far down that the sunlight wasn't enough; in order to see, he had to depend on the torches hanging against the walls, casting everything in flickering orange light.

The walls, however, were the most interesting part. They were covered in cave entrances, thousands of them, that went as far as his eye could see in all three directions. The pattern of them resembled that of a honeycomb, as there was barely any space between one entrance and the next. If this wasn't a video game, David would've wondered how the walls hadn't collapsed.

As he stared in awe at his surroundings, he got to his feet. It took a few seconds for him to remember what had happened in the witch's lair, before it all came back to him. His hands reached for his face, above his eye, to feel for the gaping wound that had been there what felt like minutes ago. Just like Matthew promised, it was gone.

They must've done it. They must've buried the heart. Which meant that they'd finished level three, and were now on level four. And if it healed him, then that must mean it-

"Ian!" David called out instinctively.

"What?" the familiar voice came from behind him, and David instantly whirled around. Ian, along with the other five members of the group, were inspecting the caves closest to the ground. They'd all grabbed torches from the walls for light.

The second Ian saw it was David that spoke, his lips split into a grin. Much to David's relief, Ian was perfectly healed. There wasn't even any dried blood on his jacket. The changing of levels had healed him as much as it had healed David.

Once the others had become aware of what was going on, David had already swept Ian up in a tight hug. Ian returned the embrace immediately, holding David close against him as they buried their heads in each other's shoulders.

"You're okay," David breathed after they pulled apart.

"Of course I am," Ian grinned. "Do you think that a little scratch would be enough to take me down?"

"Yes," David replied. "Yes I do."

Before Ian could reply, Mari crashed into David's side and hugged him so hard that he could barely breathe. Following her lead, Wes and Joven joined in, and next thing David knew all five of them were hugging him, and then he couldn't breathe at all.

Thankfully, they released him before he suffocated. Mari wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "God, are we glad to see you up and about."

"Took you a little while to get up," Matthew explained. "We were starting to get worried. Usually only takes ten seconds at the most."

"The gamemakers were probably fucking with us," Wes piped in. "That's the leading theory."

"It took you five minutes," Mari stated.

"And your first response was to leave me on the ground alone?" David joked.

Mari punched him lightly on the arm, before grabbing a torch off the wall and handing it to him. David noticed how she twisted around Ian as she did, to try and put as much distance between them as possible, and purposely didn't look in his direction. It seemed like old habits died hard.

"Um, did I miss the objective?" he asked as Mari started to walk away.

She smacked her forehead and turned to face him. "Fuck, I forgot about that. Yeah, you did. We have to find a lava pit in the lowest levels of the cave."

"That's it?"

"You're acting like giving us little to no information isn't their usual protocol."

"We're trying to pick a cave to go down," Joven said as he ran his hand over the top of the cave entrance in front of him. "Though they all look identical to me."

"That's because they are," Matthew argued. "We're going to have to randomly pick one. We're just wasting  _time_  doing this!"

He kicked a rock on the ground for dramatic emphasis.

From what David could see, he was right. Each cave looked just like the last, aside for a few different shapes of the walls that were to be expected. He doubted that the Gamemakers would've given them anything to go off of anyway.

"We don't want to go in blind, Matthew," Mari placed her hands on her hips, and then the argument began. David, feeling far too tired for this, stepped back. He and Ian watched in silence until the argument was ended by Matthew turning on his heels and promptly walking straight into one of the caves, leaving them with no choice but to follow.

It only took a minute of walking for their torches to become their only source of light. What they were in was more aptly described as a tunnel than a cave, as David soon realized. The air in the tunnel was damp and musty, and he barely had enough room to walk within the cramped walls. Wes had to bend over to avoid acquainting his forehead with the rocky ceiling, which would regularly drip onto their heads.

They walked in silence. Just their combined breathing echoed almost painfully in David's ears, and he didn't want to add to it. Instead, he opted to just stare at the cave drawings they passed. He had to admit; whoever had designed those babies, they better have been paid well. Each painting looked exactly like what he'd expect. Simple and sticking to one or two colours, and yet beautiful at the same time.

The fact that they never crossed paths with one of the other countless tunnels was nothing but fuel to the fire of knowing exactly where he was, that none of this was real. In the other levels, he had been able to forget that. Here, the unnaturality of everything around him was as clear as a slap to the face, and no amount of impeccable graphics would be enough to shake that.

After an hour so of walking uneventfully, something happened. David heard someone yelp, and then there was a flurry of movement. Mari had caught Matthew right before he fell over.

"Well, everyone," she announced. "There's a dropoff. Stick to the walls."

She hauled Matthew up and sidestepped onto what must've been a ledge, as David soon saw that she hadn't been lying. Their path ended abruptly in a steep decline, which seemed to go on for eternity. If Mari hadn't caught Matthew, he would've been long dead by now.

Shakingly, David followed the others on the narrow edge that circled around the drop, trying not to look down at the darkness below. He'd never been scared of heights before, but this made his heart race like no tomorrow. Just one slight misstep, and then there'd be no more David.

Thank whatever was out there, David made it to solid ground on the other side of the drop safely, Ian only a few steps behind him. The others had already started heading down the new tunnel, which had started to slope gradually downwards (which was a good sign), when Ian stopped suddenly. David turned to face him, and saw that he was looking down the pit.

A few seconds later, David started to hear what had to have caught his attention. Faintly, he could hear a hiss coming from the depths.

"Guys?" Ian called out. "There's something down there."

Everyone's heads whipped towards them as David made his way to Ian's side. At first, all he could see was darkness. But then the hissing got louder, and a long, hairy leg poked its way into the light glimmering off Ian's torch, and far too many sets of red eyes flashed open in the blackness.

That was all it took to get Ian and David to sprint towards the others. The others followed their lead, and soon all seven of them were running as fast as their legs could carry them. David didn't dare glance behind him; he'd seen enough of those red eyes to last him a lifetime.

They all ran and ran until the hissing died down, and the flickering of their torches was all that remained. Finally, they allowed themselves to stop. David almost collapsed against the wall the second his feet stopped, and had to lean against Ian for support.

Seeing as they were all utterly exhausted and sore, they collectively agreed to set up camp. Almost wordlessly, they all ate their salted beef and laid out their sleeping bags in a pattern that would fit them all. David found himself side-by-side with Ian, huddled together for warmth. Soon, the snores of everyone around them (mainly Joven) filled the air.

An hour passed, and David didn't fall asleep. A thought had been plaguing his mind since the witch, and he was dying to know the answer to it. And from the way Ian's eyes were clearly open and staring at the ceiling, this seemed like the prime time to get an answer.

"Hey, Ian?" From the lack of response from anyone else, it seemed like they were the only two people awake. Good. This was a conversation David would prefer to have privately.

"Yeah?" Ian responded.

"Why-" his voice hitched, and he suddenly felt very nervous. "Why did you come back for me?"

It was silent for what felt like hours. David couldn't even hear Ian breathe.

"From the witch," David clarified, though the situation didn't need clarifying in the slightest. "You almost died for me, Ian. Why?"

Ian took an audible breath. "Because you're a bastard who fell on my doorstep and had the audacity to make me care about him, alright?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"I know I did, it's just-" David didn't know how to word what he was feeling, or even what he was feeling in general. "You do?"

Ian looked at him with an odd look in his eye. His blue irises reflected the torchlight beautifully. "Of course I do."

 _Of course I do._ The way Ian said it sent butterflies running through David's stomach, as if he was back in high school and a handsome guy had just smiled at him.

"I, uh, care about you too," David responded hurriedly.

Ian didn't respond. All he did was stare at him, and then David was staring back. Neither of them moved until David, half-unconsciously, brought his hand to Ian's cheek. His beard was rough against David's fingers.

David didn't know who moved first, but  _someone_  did, and then Ian's lips were against his and they were  _kissing_. Softly, with a tender passion. If they both weren't bone-tired and surrounded by people, that might have been different. But here they were, and David wouldn't have it any other way; or, at least in  _that_ moment, he wouldn't.

Then they broke apart, and David was given enough time to process what had just happened. He and Ian had just kissed. That was a thing that had happened. Did that mean they were a thing now? Did he want them to be?

 _Yes,_ he realized with certainty.  _Yes, I definitely do._

And then Ian kissed him again, and David let himself melt into his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the stupidly late update, everyone! I really dropped the ball this past month. Hopefully, this book will be done by the end of January.


	27. Chapter 27

David woke up the next day to find Ian's arm around his shoulder, his head on Ian's chest, and Wes shooting him a questioning look. From the look of it, everyone else was still asleep.

Groggily, David unwrapped himself from Ian and navigated through the sleeping-bag cocoons to get to Wes. The silver-haired man was sitting against a wall at Mari's feet, sharpening a knife. David sat across from him. The narrow hallway made him have to cross his legs in order to not touch Wes' with his own.

"Morning," he said awkwardly.

"Morning," Wes replied, grinning slightly. "So... that's a thing now, huh?"

"Uh, yeah?" David scratched the back of his neck. "I guess?"

"You're still figuring it out, then," Wes inferred.

David nodded. "It kind of, just happened."

"Well, there's only one rule," Wes lazily pointed his knife at David. "No fucking if there's anyone else within earshot."

David's face went red. "What- we weren't planning on-"

"Just notifying you," Wes smiled. "We don't want to have another Shayne-Damien incident.  _That_  is something I wish I could sear from my memory."

The conversation stopped after that, mainly because David had no idea how to respond. Thankfully, Mari woke up a few minutes later, breaking their silence with a loud yawn before kissing Wes good morning. After that, it was a chain reaction of people waking up, and then everyone was up and eating their salted beef for breakfast.

Ian had sat beside him, close enough that their shoulders were touching. Neither of them spoke for the entire pathetic excuse of a meal. His touch was comforting, but there was still so much David wanted to ask him; mainly about  _them._  Were they dating now? What the fuck was going on?

He'd only ever had a few boyfriends in college, and those relationships tended to end almost as soon as they began. David couldn't remember having a single romantic relationship that he genuinely cared about. In other words, the was his first rodeo and he didn't have sufficient knowledge of how rodeos worked.

"Okay, team," Mari clapped her hands together after they had all finished their food. "What's the plan?"

"Same as yesterday," Joven suggested lazily. It always took him a bit longer to wake up than anyone else. "We just walk until we find something."

"That sounds so depressing," Matthew sighed.

"That's because it is!" Wes retorted.

"But it's all we got," Mari stood up and stretched. "Pack up your shit people! We've got several hours of walking down caves ahead of us!"

Everyone followed her instructions and started shoving their sleeping bags into their backpacks and grabbed their torches. Then, with Mari leading the way, they started walking back down the caverns. Once everyone had passed them, Ian grabbed David's hand, and followed the others, dragging David along with him.

 So that settled it, then. They were dating. Hand-holding was a dating thing, right? _God David, you're pathetic,_ he thought.  _You made out for like, half an hour last night. Of course you're dating!_

He squeezed Ian's hand back, earning himself a smile, and they walked in silence.

Hours passed. At least in all the other levels, there had been something to look at when you travelled. Here, there was nothing but rocks and darkness. Even the cave drawings lost their charm; there was too little detail to make them interesting to look at for hours upon hours. No one spoke, either; there was too little to talk about, and the fact that they hadn't seen any water sources yet made them careful not to waste any more energy than they needed to.

"Hey, guys?" Mari announced after at least four hours of walking. "We've got something!"  
  
"What?" Ian hollered back.

"Come look for yourself!"

It only took a few steps for them to realize what she was talking about. They were in a deep cavern. The floor was covered with stalagmites, ranging in height from as short as David's foot to as tall as five Wes's. The ceiling was high enough that the light didn't even poke through the darkness that covered it. David could see, however, the ends of the stalactites that hung from it. 

"So this isn't terrifying at all," Matthew muttered as he ran his hand over the giant stalagmite in front of him.

Ian let go of David's hand to go and explore, which left David only slightly disappointed. Everyone fanned out, only slightly, to get a good look at everything before them. David had to admit; it was beautiful. The sheer size of everything was breathtaking. The simplicity of the design only added to it.

His inner nerd came loose. How the Hell did the programmers manage to make all this? When he ran his fingers over the jagged rock, they came back covered in dust. If it wasn't an illegal murder trap, then this would be the best game ever made.

"We need a plan, guys!" David heard Mari call out. He made his way back to her.

"I think we should walk straight through it," Wes suggested. "We can't go back the way we came, after all."  
  
"I know-" Mari sighed. "I just wish there was some way to know how big this place is. It's so open; who knows what's hanging out in there."  
  
"We don't have any other options," Matthew piped up. "Wes is right; we need to go forwards."  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ian muttered. "A very bad feeling."  
  
Mari grimaced. "Me too. But we don't have any other choice. Draw your weapons, guys. We need to be prepared."  
  
David followed her advice and unsheathed his sword. Ian grabbed a rock off the ground. When David tilted his head at him, Ian said, "I forgot to grab a weapon when I saved your damn life."

  
And that was how Ian ended up in possession of David's hunting knife.

With Mari leading the way, as was custom at this point, the group made their way through the maze of stalagmites, weapon in one hand and torch in the other. David glanced over his shoulder what felt like every second. It was terrifying; their torchlight only reached a meter away from them. If something was lurking in the darkness, they would barely even have to try to stay hidden. Anything could pounce at him at any second, and he'd have no warning.

He kept close to Ian; not really because he thought Ian could protect him, but because he wanted the reassurance that someone else's presence brought. He was pretty sure everyone else felt the same way, as Mari, Wes, and Joven had formed a triangle, and Matthew was sticking walking closer to Damien than he normally would have.

They must have walked for hours, but it felt like minutes. It's crazy how time flies when you're hearts pounding a mile a minute. But then Mari's voice rang out, high and clear, "Everyone! Get over to me now!"  
  
David and Ian took off at a sprint, ready to attack. Instead, they found themselves in a clearing. The stalagmites had stopped, forming a small circle. The land inside was completely flat.

"This can't be normal," Matthew stated.

"What is, here?" Mari asked as she took a few small steps inside the circle. As her torch soon revealed, there were stalagmites on the other side of the circle as well. It was boxed in.

"Well, it's just some land, right?" David tried to sound braver than he felt. "It's no different from the maze."  
  
"Fuck, I hope you're right," Mari breathed as Wes stepped forwards and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She leaned into him slightly. "Let's go."

She started walking forward, and everyone followed, forming a circular formation almost naturally to keep an eye on the maze. Next to him, Ian kept muttering under his breath. David picked up *bad feeling* over and over again.

They made it to the middle of the circle safely. Then David noticed it; on the ground was some sort of substance, glittering in the torchlight. When he traced it with his eyes, he noticed that it circled around them.

Before he could say anything, an arrow fell from the ceiling, landing straight in the substance in front of him. The back end of it was on fire.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. Then the next arrow fell, right next to it. And then a flurry of them fell, at least twenty, completing the circle. 

He figured out what the substance was for soon after. The second the last arrow fell, the fire of the first one reached the tip of the arrow, and the substance burst into flames. Within seconds, they were entrapped in the walls of fire.

"Oh, that can't be good," Matthew yelled. 

"No shit, Sherlock!" Wes yelled back.

David brandished his sword in front of him on instinct. He glanced up at the ceiling, but all he could see was the overwhelming darkness that had been there since the start. 

Then they fell. All at once, several grey masses dropped from the stalactites, too quickly for him to make out what they were. There was a loud clang when they all hit the ground, right outside the ring of fire. David's throat suddenly felt very dry.

They were surrounded and trapped. There was no escape. If whatever those things were were too powerful... they were fucked.

A few seconds later, the first one stepped through the fire. It was a skeleton. There wasn't a strip of skin left on its bones, which were grey from decay. Half of its skull was missing, and most of its bones were chipped. In its hand, which was missing two fingers and half of a third, was a long sword.

More followed it, until they were circled in once again. The first one leaned its head back and opened its mouth, but no sound came out; it had lost its vocal cords far too long ago for that to be a possibility. Somehow, the silence was more terrifying than a roar could've been.

That must've been a que, because they all charged. The first one ran at David, and he barely brought his sword up to its in time before it cut his head right off his body.

For such frail looking bones, the skeleton sure was strong. It took all of David's energy to stop himself from falling over each time their swords met. The biggest difficulty, however, was the fact that David didn't know how to _kill_ it. There was no heart to puncture, no throat to slit, no nothing. When he took off its hand, it didn't even react.

But then he got a good hit at its neck, sending its head clear off. Its body crumbled, lifeless, while its head started angrily gashing its teeth at him. 

"Get the heads!" he bellowed as another skeleton crony rushed up to take the fallen one's place. "Decapitate them!"

Each time he took one down, another one took its place. He could only hope that there wasn't an infinite number of them, because the wall of fire showed no signs of burning out.

When he took down his fourth one, he had enough time to look at everyone else. Wes was taking two at once, and everyone else seemed to be managing with theirs just fine. 

 _We're going to be fine,_ David thought as he turned to face a fifth.  _If we could survive the witch's goons, we can survive these bony fuckers._

Then he heard the scream.

He turned just in time to see the skeleton who had dug its sword into Wes' back pull it out. The steel was stained with blood, which started to drip onto the floor. Wes' eyes were wide, and his mouth hung loosely open.

When Wes' knees hit the floor, all the skeletons turned to dust, letting their swords drop to the ground. Mari hadn't stopped screaming. David felt like he couldn't breath.

Time seemed to slow as Wes dropped to the ground, chest-first. His head faced David as he landed. His eyes were wide, and looked like they were made of glass.

Mari dropped next to him, her hand shooting towards him desperately. But then, before she even had the chance to touch him-

Everything went white.


	28. Chapter 28

The whiteness seemed to last forever, leaving him in emptiness, heart racing. He tried to call out, but the void swallowed his words; if they had even come out in the first place. It was different than the level switches; it took too long, the air was too heavy to breathe. It was terrifying and nauseating.

He only cared about one thing; Wes. The taller man's glassy eyes swam in his vision. But he couldn't be dead; he couldn't be! The mere thought made David’s heart beat faster, his lungs feel tighter.

But then the whiteness was gone. He found himself on his hands and knees, panting. The first thing he noticed was the weight missing from his back and side. His backpack and sword were gone.

Then it was the hay covering the ground, which told him all he needed to know without even having to look up, though he did anyway. He was met with a familiar sight of wet walls with peeling red and white paint, with hay stacks scattered around the ground. There was a fresh pile of beer leaning against the wall, stacked perfectly with a bottle opener on the ground in front of them. Right in front of David's face was a wall covered in tally marks, fourteen in total.

He was back where this entire nightmare had started. The barn.

As quickly as he could, he jumped to his feet. The sudden movement almost made him feel sick, and he had to lean against the wall for support before surveying the room.

There were five people on the ground, looking almost as disoriented as David felt. Matthew had curled into a ball, though he wasn't crying. Ian and Damien were staring at the floor, both on their hands and knees. Joven was shakily climbing to his feet. And Mari...

Mari was still on the ground, her hand outstretched just like it had been in the cavern, reaching out for Wes. There were tears in her eyes, and she was shaking. With every second that passed, her shaking got worse, until she was practically convulsing. That was when she finally dropped her reached-out arm and let out a ear-piercing shriek that echoed in the small room.

"No!" she screamed, slamming her head to the ground and grabbing her hair. "No! No no no no!"

Joven rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tight to his chest with her chin at his left shoulder. David didn't know how his ears weren't bleeding with how loudly Mari was screaming and sobbing.

Wes was dead.

That thought seemed so strange, out of place. Unrealistic. But it was true. The man who was built like a mountain, who was determined to get out of here, who had wanted a life with the woman he loved. Snuffed out. Gone. And there was no way to bring him back.

David took a shaky breath and slumped against the wall, tears falling from his eyes. His sobs shook his entire body. Oh God, Wes.

He was vaguely aware of Ian as he wrapped his arm around David comfortingly. David leaned into his chest subconsciously, his vision blurry from tears. The image of Wes falling, of his glassy eyes, was seared into his vision.

Why didn't he go and help him? He had been handling his attackers just fine. If he'd gone over to Wes, if he'd decapitated that skeleton before the bony fuck had a chance to raise his goddamn sword...

"I should've helped him," David whispered. "I should've-"

"David," Ian stroked his fingers through David's hair comfortingly. "Don't."

"Ian-"

"Don't."

Another one of Mari's cries broke through the air, louder than the rest. David found himself leaning farther into Ian's chest.

"Fuck!" Matthew had gotten himself off the ground, and was now kicking the wall repeatedly. "Fuck!"

Damien grabbed him around the waist and pulled him away as he struggled, to stop him from hurting himself. Mari's sobs had become quieter, letting out only whimpers; her voice must have gone hoarse. She had buried her head in Joven's shirt. Joven had one of the beers in his hand, which was already half empty.

Suddenly, the weapons rack shot up from the ground. David quickly spotted his sword among the array of weapons, in the exact same place it had been when he first grabbed it. No one moved to take anything.

"What the Hell?" Matthew yelled. "Why is this here already?"

David's eyes shot to the clock, which he hadn't bothered to glance at yet. 7:51. It wasn't supposed to start going down until the new player got here. Which could only mean one thing.

"There isn't going to be a new player," David's voice sounded scratchy, even to himself. "We already have six."

Realization washed over everyone. In less than eight minutes, the doors would open to the first level of the next playthrough, and they'd be expected to play on. They'd only been given 15 damn minutes to mourn Wes.

"We aren't going out there," Matthew's voice shuddered. "Not yet. They can't seriously expect-" he cut himself off.

"They're monsters," Joven had moved onto a second beer. "What do you expect?"

Mari let out a wail.

"No, fuck that," Matthew argued. "We aren't going anywhere. Not until we decide to."

"Or until they set something on us," Joven piped in. "They can do whatever the fuck they want."

The show must go on, David thought. His nausea returned, and he had to bring a hand to his mouth to stop himself from throwing up.

Silence fell over the room. Damien walked to the weapons rack and grabbed a knife, before heading to the tally marks on the wall behind David. With one swift movement, he added one to the array, making the total fifteen.

Fifteen. Fifteen playthoughs. Fifteen people dead, their bodies disposed both virtually and physically as if they were nothing. How many of them had been exactly where David was, crying over a lost friend? How many people in this roo right now would become another mark on that wall?

Fifteen playthroughs. That would have taken years. Just the last one must've taken two months at the least, and they only made it to level four. David could see crystal clear now why Ian had chosen to live in the swamp. How could you keep hope, here? David felt like his had died with Wes.

"Joven," he founded himself saying. "What was the farthest you've ever gotten?"

"What?"

"What's the highest level you've ever gotten to?"

It took Joven a few seconds to respond. "Twelve."

"Twelve," David's throat suddenly felt very dry. "In how many years?"

"Four."

David had thought he'd run out of tears, but the new ones forming in his eyes proved him wrong. Twelve levels out of a hundred, after four years. That wasn't even a fifth of the way through.

"There's no way out of here," he said. No one voiced a disagreement. "This is impossible."

2:43. The backpacks appeared on the wall right next to David. When he glanced over at them, he noticed something peeking out of a green one. It was black and rectangular. He recognized it from Ian's house, and his eyes widened.

For a few seconds, he wondered why they'd give them the iPad ripoff, but the revelation came to him quickly. They'd given it to them for the same reason they'd given it to Ian in the first place; to put on a show. That was what it all came down to with them.

Now they had something they'd never had before. They could cheat. The rules would be different, surely, now that it would be used during gameplay. But they would figure them out. And they could use it.

"This is impossible," David's tone was slightly warmer, now that he was getting excited, which caught everyone's attention. "Unless we play differently."

He unzipped the backpack and pulled out the device, passing it to the man beside him. Ian ran his fingers over the screen. "Holy shit."

"What is that?" Joven asked. Mari had untangled herself from him, her face red from crying.

"You'll see," Ian was grinning, and kissed David in excitement. David leaned into it, sharing the feeling. "This changes everything."

The timer hit zero, and the doors flung open. David felt a cool wind hit his back, but he didn't bother to look outside. He was too busy staring at the device. Ian took his hand in his.

"Wait, hold up," Matthew sputtered. "Firstly, why does that change everything, and secondly, since when have you guys been together? Did I miss something?"

They both ignored him. David grabbed a backpack, before rushing to the weapons rack and grabbing his trusty sword, hunting knife, and lighter. Then he turned to the others, who were watching him and Ian gear up with bewildered looks on their faces.

"With that," he pointed to the device in Ian's hand, "we can cheat. He knows how to use it. We can make items appear, make things disappear- you name it. And though it comes with a price, we will be able to use it! This will win us the game."

"That sounds way too good to be true," it was the first time Mari had spoken. Her voice was quiet. "Way too good."

"Using it comes with the chance of a painful death," Ian pointed out.

"That's more like it," Joven grumbled, but he got to his feet all the same, pulling Mari up with him. Damien and Matthew had already grabbed their backpacks, and were making their way to the weapons rack. David went to Ian's side, and they rested their foreheads gains one another's as they stared down at the device.

"Let's give them what they want," David breathed. "A show."

"That sounds like a shitty line from an ever shittier action movie."

"Fuck you."

David stepped back from him, and the others crowded around to look at the device. All the screen displayed was the keyboard, and the flashing block on the first line that showed them where whatever they typed would go.

"Just so you know, I have almost no faith in you," Matthew told Ian.

"You won't when I save your life with this bad boy."

"Like that's going to happen"

The depressing mood from Wes' death hadn't disappeared completely, but hope and excitement had started to sink in. This device gave them a chance far greater than they'd ever had before. It was hard to be sad about this.

"So... what's the game plan?" Mari asked, leaning against Joven for support. She probably wanted to get a move on more than anyone. Knowing her, she'd be looking for any distraction possible.

"We start the level," David replied.

She nodded, and as a team, they all turned to the gaping doors. Snow had started to collect at the doors' threshold, and David saw piles of white through the storm of snow that was falling

Then he blinked, and he was back in the whiteness.

It took him a few seconds to register what had just happened. He screamed, but like before, the whiteness swallowed the noise before he could hear it. What the fuck? He thought frantically as he looked around desperately for any of his friends, his heart beating a mile a minute as he started to hyperventilate. What happened?

"Hello, David."

He spun around. Across from him was a woman with short blonde hair, sitting in a plush armchair with a cup of tea in her hands. She was wearing a pristine black suit, and was smiling at him with painted-red lips.

David would recognize her anywhere. Courtney Miller. The CEO of Smosh Games herself.

He tried to shout at her, but it seemed that she was the only one capable of making noise, leaving him opening and closing his mouth like an idiot. When he tried to move towards her, he found himself rooted in place. She had all the power; that couldn't be any more clear.

Her smile widened at his efforts. "Let's talk, shall we?"

  
**End of Book 1**


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